Re: [tied] Hi everyone

Maybe old germanic and slavic speakers were aware of the likenesses
between their respective words and influenced each other in both
meaning and structure. Too bad we don´t have any proof of such a
meeting but the trade of bronze and iron in olden times may well have
been such an occasion for swapping words and influences.

Carl Hult


onsdagen den 30 augusti 2006 kl 03.19 skrev Petr Hrubis:

> I see. Well, I would not have a problem with linking the concepts of
> cave and dwelling, of course, but etymologically,especially from the
> historical-phonological point of view, <jama> and <home> must come
> from two distinct PIE protoforms.
>
> As you might know, the phonetic "closeness" of <jama> and <hjem> is a
> mere coincidence. Actually, it is a well-known fact that the
> relationship between the sound and the meaning is arbitrary (perhaps,
> except for onomatopoeia and similar expressions).
>
> Best,
>
> P.
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jaroslaw Jozefowicz <jaroslawowicz@...>
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, 29 August, 2006 4:16:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [tied] Hi everyone
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Petr Hrubis <hrubisp@...> wrote:
> >
> > Dear Jarek ;-)
> >
> > I haven't read the text you present on your web site thoroughly,
> but do you really want to say that English "home" and Danish "hjem"
> are related to Polish "jama"? (IMHO, they weren't)
>
> :-) Dear Petr, I really wanted to say, what I have written:
> English "home" is Danish "hjem", but Polish "jama" is a cave.
>
> I simply found the similarity of sound and meaning interesting enough
> to be presented. I cannot decide whether those words are related or
> not, as I do not know what kind of concept they conveyed to start
> with.
> If the word "home"/"hjem" referred to a dwelling, then: What kind of
> dwelling? (do you know that?)
>
> If all of them originally referred to a cave or to the oral cavity,
> then they are related.
> If they referred to a semi-subterranean dwelling, they may be
> related.
> Otherwise, they are not.
>
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