--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> On 2007-02-03 13:18, Joao S. Lopes wrote:
>
> > Raposa seems to be superficially similar to lopas^a. Is there any
> > Iranian equivalent of Indian lopas^a ? Something like *laupasa or
> > *raupasa? The Alans was settled in Iberia.
> > Perhaps *raupasa>*rapausa>raposa ???
>
> Middle Persian ro:pa:s, Mod.Per. rubah point to PIr. *raupa:c'-.
>
A rather long quote, from Burrow 'The Sanskrit language' again:
"
§12. Treatment of r and l
In Iranian IE r and l appear indiscriminately as r (there are a few
exceptions in Modern Persian and occasionally elsewhere : Pers.
lis^tan 'to lick', Skt. rih-, lik, Gk. leikho:; las^in 'soft', Skt.
s´lak.s.ná- : lab 'lip' : Lat. labium ; Oss. sald 'cold' : Lith.
s^áltas). In the language of the R.gveda this is predominantly the
case. In Classical Sanskrit both l and r are found, but their
distribution does not correspond exactly with that of Indo-European.
In certain Eastern dialects of Indo-Aryan (notably in the inscriptions
of As´oka and in the Ma:gadhi: of the Drama) only l is found. The
treatment of IE l in Sanskrit is illustrated by the following examples :
(a) l becomes r : rin.ákti 'leaves' : Lat. linquit; s´rón.i-
'buttock' : Lat. clu:nis, Lith. s^launìs ; sarpís 'butter', Toch. A.
s.älyp, cf. Engl. salve ; aratní- 'elbow' : Gk. ò:léne:, Lat. ulna ;
s´rávas 'fame' : Gk. kléos, O. Sl. slovo 'word' ; gárbha- 'embryo' :
Gk. delphús 'id', `adelphós 'brother' (cf. sodara-) ; cakrá- 'wheel'
: Gk. kúklos ; paras´ú- 'axe' : Gk. pélekus ; píparti 'fills' : Gk.
píple:mi; pur- 'city' : Lith. pilìs, Gk. pólos; s´ri- 'to lean' :
Gk. klíno:; sú:rya- 'sun', Lat. so:l.
(b) l remains : lúbhyati 'covets' : Lat. lubet; palitá-
'grey-haired' : cf. Gk. poliós, pelitnós, etc. ; °kulva- 'bald' : Lat.
calvus; palá:va- 'chaff' : O. Sl. pléva, Lat. palea; palvala- 'pond'
: cf. Lat. palus 'swamp' ; pli:hán- 'spleen' : Gk. sple:n, Lat. lien ;
dala- 'portion' : Lith. dalìs ; klóman- 'lung' : Gk. pleúmo:n.
In comparing the Vedic with the Classical language we notice :
(i)that in a number of words the latter has l where the former has r,
and this normally in cases where l appears in other IE languages, e.g.
laghú- 'light' v. raghu-, Gk. `elakhús, Lat. levis; plu- 'to float',
v. pru-, Gk. pléo: ; lip- ' to smear', v. rip-, Gk. aleipho: ; lih-
'to lick ', v. rih-, Gk. leíkho: ;
(ii) that a considerable proportion of the classical words which
preserve IE are not found in the text of the R.gveda, either by
accident, or because their meaning was of such a nature that they were
not likely to appear in a text of sacred hymns (e.g. plús.i- 'flea'
: Arm. lu, Alb. pl'es^t, cf. Lith. blusà) ;
(iii) that some derivatives which have become isolated from their
roots preserve IE l even when it is normally replaced by r in the
corresponding roots : s´lóka- 'verse' (s´ru-), vipula- 'great,
extensive' (pr´.-, píparti 'fill').
The explanation of this apparently complicated treatment is fairly
simple. The dialect at the basis of the R.gvedic language lay to the
north-west, while the classical language was formed in Madhyades´a.
The original division must have been such that the Western dialect
turned l into r in the same way as Iranian (being contiguous to
Iranian, and at the same time probably representing a later wave of
invasion), while the more easterly dialect retained the original
distinction. It was in this latter area that Classical Sanskrit was
elaborated, but it was not evolved as a separate literary language,
distinct from that of the Veda; on the contrary it developed as a
modification of the old sacred language of the Vedic hymns. The latter
was always the foundation of the literary language, but since after
the earliest period (and this excludes most of the later tenth book of
the R.gveda), the centre of its cultivation shifted eastward to
Madhyades´a, in its further development it was subject to the
continuous influence of the dialectal forms of this region. So in the
case of the distribution of r and l many of the basic words of the
vocabulary retain always the form established by the Vedic literature,
but in other cases l-forms based on the dialect of Madhyades´a replace
them. In cases where the word in question is not found in the Vedic
text, and where therefore there existed no established literary
tradition, the Eastern form with original l almost universally appears.
The treatment of IE r is different in that in the vast majority of
cases it continues to be represented by r in all periods of the
language, e.g. rudhirá- ' red, blood', Gk. `eruthrós; járant- 'old',
Gk. géro:n 'old man' ; raí- 'property', Lat. re:s, pári 'round', Gk.
perí; vártate 'turns', Lat. vertitur, párdate 'breaks wind', Gk.
pérdetai, ; pá:rs.n.i- 'heel', Gk. ptérna, Goth. fairzna ; sru- ' to
flow', Gk. réo: ; náras n. pl. 'men', Gk. `anéres, `ándres ; sárpati
'crawls', Gk. ´erpo:, Lat. serpo: ; rá:j-, rá:jan- 'king', Lat. re:x ;
rátha- 'chariot', Lith. ra:tas 'wheel', Lat. rota 'id' ; vi:rá-
'man, hero', Lith. výras, Lat. vir, etc.
On the other hand instances of l in place of IE r are comparatively
rare: lóhita- 'red' (also róhita-, Av. raoiDita-, cf. rudhirá-) ; álam
'suitable, enough', v. áram, cf. Gk. `ararísko: ; pala:yate 'flees'
(para: with i- 'to go'). The number of such examples is too small to
justify the assumption of an l-dialect to account for them. Such an
l-dialect does in fact occur later in the Magadhan Prakrit, but it was
limited to a small area, and this Prakrit cannot account for forms
with l out of r which occur in the later Vedic literature. It is also
to be noted that in some cases where a change l > r has been assumed
(e.g. lup- compared with Lat. rumpo) it is more likely that l is original.
"
Torsten