On 2008-02-14 02:50, alexandru_mg3 wrote:
> But maybe there were three different word-families : 'sweet', 'good
> food' and 'cook' ...and I start to think that finally maybe they were
> even more ...
>
> If this is the price to remove the laryngeal ...then Ok :)
I'm being serious. The "su:d-" words don't mean 'sweet' or 'sweeten'
(the typical meaning of the "swa:d-" set. Lith. súdyti means 'to season,
to salt, to pickle'. It's true that there may have been some confusion
between 'sweet' and 'salty' in Balto-Slavic -- the BSl. word for 'sweet'
is *saldu-, which looks like a cross-breed between *sal- and *swa(:)du-
-- but *su:d- is formally different from the one and semantically from
the other. Skt. su:da- 'a cook' also makes more sense semantically as
*h1su-h1d-o- '(maker) of good food' than as 'he that sweetens'.
Piotr