[tied] Re: Of cows and living

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@>
> wrote:
> >
> > On 2006-02-20 13:50, tgpedersen wrote:
> >
> > > The three PIE roots *lak(t)-, *galak(t)- and *melg^-/*melk^-
> *taken
> > > together* look like they were loaned from a (predominantly)
> > > prefixing language, eg Sino-Tibetan. The fact that there is a
> > > similar root with matching semantics in PTB *m-/s-lyak- and in
> OC
> > > *luk makes it likely that this is the case.
> > >
> > > So, no cognacy, in the strict sense of the word.
> > >
> >
> > Note that PIE *h2melg^- is a verb root, perhaps with the

original

> > meaning of 'rub, press, squeeze out' (hence 'to milk'), cf. Skt.
> > má:rs.t.i. The verbs based on it (e.g. Gk. amelg-o:, Slavic

*melz-

> ti)
> > are primary, not denominative, which shows that the Germanic

noun

> itself
> > is deverbative ('the product of milking', cf. Slavic

[inherited!]

> > *melzivo 'colostrum, the first milk after calving').
> >
>
>
> BTW Matisoff:
> Proto-Sino-Tibetan *n,wa "cattle"
> Proto-Lolo-Burmese (a subgroup) *nwa "cattle"
> Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-na "live, stay"
>
> which definitely doesn't prove that "cattle" and "live" are

related

> within Sino-Tibetan, but does disprove a connection if they are
> loaned from elsewhere. Note the discrepancy between PLB *nwa and

PST

> *n,wa.
>
>

BTW Li, as amended by Gong, reconstructs OC gwat "alive".


Torsten