Horse Sense (was: [tied] Re: Hachmann versus Kossack?)

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 57187
Date: 2008-04-12

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:

> Yes "dog" is kuH2on.

> As regard the reconstructoid hekwos :

> Greek is hippos, ippos
> Anatolian is Indo-iranian asuwa

I think you are referring to Luwian á-zú-wa, Lycian _esbe_. But
Luwian is known for its Satem shift - as far as I know, we still don't
have any good indication as to what the Hittites said for 'horse'.
(They wrote it with a Sumerogram.)

> Indic is as^was when we expect akas

> Now I know you will come up with your theory that kw is not k+w,
> which I consider as learned flapdoodle.

k^+w is k^w.
k+w is kw; it is not kW or k^w.

As to what *kW is, well I don't think that is clear. It may be a
labialised velar, or it may be a very tight cluster. The idea that it
is a labiovelar as in the IPA chart has very few takers. (The cluster
is called a labiovelar often enough, though I suspect under the
influence of IE terminology.) You are aware that affricates can
contrast with stop plus fricative, aren't you? Or do you regard the
claim that Polish <czy> and <trzy> are pronounced differently as
'flapdoodle'? See
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/13869 .

> This reconstructoid just does not work.
> There is no Horse word in that protolanguage.
> Horses were domesticated after PIE split.

Did *wlkWo- (possibly actually *wlpWo-) 'wolf' refer to a domestic animal?

Richard.