Re: b/m alternation in Thacian, Illyria and Abanian

> >> And in Gmc. [ON <þorskr> 'codfish'] has a perfectly good
> >> etymology, from *þurs- (PIE *ters- 'to dry').
>
> > Would that be with a k-suffix?
>
> Yes. Krahe & Meid III, §194.1 note that deadjectival
> derivation of verbs via a Gmc. k-suffix is especially
> frequent in ON, offering the pairs <dýrka> ~ <dýrr>,
> <blíðka> ~ <blíðr>, <minnka> ~ <minnr>, <seinka> ~ <seinn>,
> <víðka> ~ <víð>, <þurka> ~ <þurr>, and <samka> ~ <samr>.

But those are verbs, Brian. You may have noticed þurka, Sw torka "dry"
v.. There's no s there, and there is no verb **þurska. How do want
to connect that to þorskr? Your etymology may be right, but it's not
Germanic.

Perhaps *þurr-fiskr > þurfskr > þorskr, cf. the town on Sjælland
Skælsør < (supposedly) Skælfisk-ør, and Aikio 'On Germani-Saami
contacts and Saami prehistory' has a Norther Saami skálz^u "seashell"
< NwSaami ska:lc^o:, and Kola Saami ka:l:3^ "seashell" < *ka:lc^o:
which he wants to be a loan from PScand *skaljo: (> ON skel "shell,
crust") with a correspondence Saami c^ <-> PScand j which isn't too
happy about; perhaps there was PScand *skal-sk- ?


Torsten