From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 57183
Date: 2008-04-12
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:
that Matasovic wrote of *marko-:
This word is probably a "Wanderwort" of eastern origin,
that established itself in Celtic and Germanic alongside
the inherited PIE word for 'horse', *h1ek'wos (OIr. ech).
Attempts to connect it to Skt. márya- 'youth, foal' are
not convincing (Celtic points to non-IE a-vocalism of
*marko-).
But *marko- is not alone in having initial *ma-. Miguel listed nine
such words, namely
*mad- 'wet, gloss, fat'
*mag^H- 'fight'
*mag^- 'press, knead'
*mand- 'hurdle, plaited twigs'
*man-us 'man'
*marko- 'horse'
*math2- 'moth'
*mat- 'hook'
*mazdo- 'pole'
back in http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/18118 .
The Asian words in *mor- apparently related to *marko are another
matter - though I always liked the idea of Thai maa_453 'horse' being
one of that language's oldest Germanic loanwords!
Richard.