Dear listmembers,
--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Francesco Brighenti" <frabrig@...>
wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nur
> "*nur is a Proto-Indo-European root denoting water or river. As
> such it is a part of several river and city names in Europe,
> including Narew, Narva and Neretva."
>
> From another Wikipedia article:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narew
> "[The river] Narew originates in Belarus and flows into the
> Vistula river in Poland........The name of the river comes from a
> Proto-Indo-European root *nr primarily associated with water
> (compare with Narva, Neretva, Neris, Ner and Nur)."
>
> What is the linguistic basis for the reconstruction of these PIE
> roots supposedly associated with water bodies or rivers, *nr- and
> *nur-?
Sorry for replying to myself, but I have a further query re this
hypothesized PIE root (which, however, would in no case mean 'water'
or 'river'): could it be ultimately derived from an 'Eurasiatic'
(Greenberg) or 'Boren' (Starostin) root?
From S. Starostin's Nostratic database at
http://tinyurl.com/y24nyh :
(J. Greenberg's) `Eurasiatic' *n/VjrV- `flow'
Proto-Dravidian: *n/i:r- `water'
Proto-Altaic: *najV(rV)- `lake, river'
Uralic: Finn. nira `brook' (according to A. Dolgoposky, from Proto-
Uralic *n/[i]ra `stream, liquid')
Proto-Eskimo *n/ar(@)va- `lake'
Cf. Starostin's `Borean' proto-form (approx.) *NVRV- `flow', assumed
as the root for both (J. Greenberg's) `Eurasiatic' *n/VjrV-
`flow'(see above) and Proto-Afro-Asiatic *nihar- `flow' (Proto-
Semitic: *nVhar- `flow'; Proto-East-Chadic: *nyar- < *niHar- `flow
slowly')
Cf. further (J. Greenberg's)`Eurasiatic' *n/orV- `wet'
Proto-Dravidian: *nur- `foam, froth'
Proto-Altaic: *ni_u/r/e- `to become wet, soak'
Proto-Uralic: *n/orV- `swamp'
Thank you very much in advance for a reply.
Best,
Francesco