From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 56540
Date: 2008-04-03
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen
Aha, a geminate.
The usual explanation for 'cat' in Germanic and Celtic is that it is a
loan from Latin; but if it is so, then
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Yes
As in Arabic qat.t.u "cat"
Arnaud
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1) why does Freya have a cat-drawn chariot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyja
qoute: '"People of many races visited this burning. First is to be
told of Odin, how Frigg and the Valkyries went with him, and his
ravens; but Freyr drove in his chariot with the boar called Gold-Mane,
or Fearful-Tusk, and Heimdallr rode the horse called Gold-Top, and
Freyja drove in her chariot drawn by cats..." (Gylfaginning (49))"';
why this if they only knew the cat from the Romans; this doesn't look
like a late accretion?
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What is the exact word for "cat"
in the original text ?
Arnaud
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2) why does the the geminated katt- root have a non-geminated side
form with -t- in German and Dutch kater "tomcat", cf.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/49197 ?
From which I conclude that the *katt- word in both Celtic and Germanic
is a loan from (probably non-IE) NWBlock, which is also the language
of geminates, and that explains the lack of Grimm-shift; *kat- is a
non-geminated side form from some neighbor dialect. Imported into
NWBlock with a ship cat?
Torsten
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Geminated forms are Celtic.
The others are Italic.
Arnaud
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