--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "C. Darwin Goranson"
<cdog_squirrel@...> wrote:
>
> > PIE *weh1wérnah2 "squirrel"
> > Gaulo-Latin vi:verra
> > Welsh gwiwer
> > Breton gwiber
> > Gaelic feòrag
> > Lith. ve.verìs, voverìs
> > OPruss weware
> > OSl *veverIka
> > Polish wiewiórka
> > Czech veverka
> > >
> > Germanic substrate *ikwernan-
> > ON ikorni
> > Norw. ikorna
> > with folk etymology to Gmc *aik- "oak" > *aikwernan-
> > OHG aihhurno
> > Dutch eekhorn
> > OE a:cweorn-
>
> I've seen many forms of this root: some are *wiwer-, *werwer-, *wer-.
There's nothing odd about the PIE word. It's simply gone through
analogy and dissimilation in many languages.
It's from *wer- "cover" so:
*wèwersó+ "covering, coverer" n
*wèwernó+ "covering" adj
and Vrs > V:r so *wèwe:ró+
In Latin s was restored analogically and *rs>rr per usual. In many
languages there was quant. met. so *wè:weró+. The two forms of
reduplication changed the start to *wì- in some languages.
In Baltic *e>o before w; apparently *e: > o: between w-w optionally.
In Germanic *w > *gW between i-r (as *daxiwr+ > ta:cor in OE); there
was dissim. losing initial *w. So *wìwernó+s / *wìwr.no+ > *ìwr.no+ >
*ìgWr.no+ > *ikWurna+ etc.