Re: Mitanni and Matsya

----- Original Message -----

From: Piotr Gasiorowski

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 5:36 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Mitanni and Matsya

On 2008-04-04 23:54, Patrick Ryan wrote:

> PIE *da:nu-, 'river, has a final -*n-.

<Piotr wrote:>

No, it has a final *-u. The second element of Poseidon's name is -dao:n,
a nasal stem (which *dah2-nu- is not). I don't think it has anything to
do with rivers.

> PIE **da:-, 'earth', if it exists, does not.

The final *-o:n in <Potei-dao:n> is probably something trivial like the
individualising (and anthroponymic) nasal suffix of <Plato:n> etc., and
tells us practically nothing about the root it got attached to.

***

Well, when you are right, you are right.

-*u is final.

But the underlying root here, *daH-, 'liquid, flow', suggests to me that *daH-n- was 'spring melt off' watercourse, which united into a 'river': *daH-n-(e)u-.

By this reasoning, *daH-n- must have existed although not attested except indirectly..

It is, of course, quite possible that *potei-daH-oHn is the proper division of the word but this is not sufficient by  itself to mandate abandoning *daH-.

 This could then mean something like 'Lord of the Melt', and important event for many water-poor populations.

Supporting an etymology of  'Lord if the Earth' is Poseidon's epithet 'Earth-Shaker' but earthquakes are also a feature of the Greek islands.

It may be of some significance that, of the various words for 'Earth-Shaker', none use <-*da-> for 'earth'.

 

Patrick

***