On 2008-03-08 19:58, Francesco Brighenti wrote:
> Yet this PIE etymology is extremely uncertain.
Well, most etymologists do support a connection between Skt.
sahásra-/Av. hazaNra- and Lat. mi:lle, though it's obvious that the
relationship is indirect. The Indo-Iranian numeral is a true compound
(*sm.-g^Heslo-), whereas the Latin one seems to be a univerbated phrase
(*smih2 g^H(e)slih2 > *(s)mi:ksli > mi:lle; the geminate is regular
after a long vowel). The main objection is the non-attestation of any
reflexes of *smih2 in Italic, but as the form must have existed in
pre-Italic IE, its loss as a free form is quite irrelevant. The
prototype of <mi:lle> was probably already opaque to speakers of
Proto-Italic. *g^Heslo- etc. may be related to *g^Héso:r/*g^Hesr- 'hand'
("a large handful"?)
Piotr