Re: Old dog

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

>
> > 11.2.4 Traces of suffixal *-n in Chinese
> > The most interesting cases of the *-n suffix in Chinese involve
> noun
> > roots where the suffix can be said to contribute a collective or
> > vaguely plural meaning. These include several animal names and
> > kinship terms:
> >
> > 'dog'
> > *kw&y-n STC #159; JAM 1985a GSTC #17
> > *kw&y WT khyi; Chepang kwi; Jg. gùi; WB khwê; Lahu phï^
> > Lushai ui; Karen thw\î;
> > Chinese .. (OC ku; GSR #108d) 'dog'
> > *kw&yn Chinese .. (OC k`iw&n; GSR #479a-d) 'dog' a
> >
> > 'female'
> > *pwi(y-)n stc#171
> > *pwi(y) Lushai -pui 'feminine affix';
> > Jg. wi ~ yi 'id.', s&wi ~ s&yi 'female'
> > *pwi(y)n Chinese .. (OC b'y&n ~ b'y&r; GSR #566i-j)
> > 'female of animals' b
>
>
>
> Note in the latter the alternation in Old Chinese finals *-n ~ *-

r.

> In principle, the former, the "dog" word, might therefore have had
> now undocumented forms in final *-r, which could be the ancestors

of

> Proto-Basque *kora, English cur, Finnish koira.
>

Slightly irrelevant, but check this out for 'dog':

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/7051/man1.htm

Close to *kwVr-.

Check it also for 'cow' and/or 'cattle' and compare to the prosed
cognate pair Old Chinese *n,Wiu ~ PIE *gWow. The former wins.

Perhaps one should go for a 'single domestication event' theory for
both species.


Torsten