Re: [tied] Colchidian loan?

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

>
> I am glad to see you are looking for more Kartvelian loanwords into
> Germanic.
> But I am in the uncomfortable situation to tell you
> this example does not look very good.

I sympathize with your plight.

> KArtvelian tch-x-w-erk = PIE s-H1-w-
> Twig cannot be derived from this word.

Probably not. That's why I proposed it's a loan from Migrelian

> My opinion is that twig is just 100% PIE.
> (Hard-hats beware !)

What is a hard-hat?

> twig is from *wik "to be pliant" (especially said of twigs)
> Pokorny weik 1130
> -i- is a vowel.

I won't deny that.

> t is from medio-passive prefix #t?- (glottalized dental stop)
> PIE standard theory is bad for phonology and worse as regards
>morphology.
>
> PIE often adds the medio-passive prefix as a semantically pleonastic
> addition to roots that already have medio-passive meaning.
> "To be pliant" : *wik = t?-wik
> "to be day-light" : *yew = t?-yew
> "to weep" : *akr = t?-akr (hence d-akru-ma "tears")
> Etc
>
> Conclusion : no need to look for a non PIE origin for twig.

Nice.
The thing that got me worried was the supposedly Germanic tw-/kw-
alternation which doesn't seem related to any other process in that
language.


Torsten