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

From: david_russell_watson
Message: 57191
Date: 2008-04-12

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud"
<fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:
>
> Greek is hippos, ippos Anatolian is Indo-iranian asuwa Indic
> is as^was when we expect akas

We don't expect that.

You're confusing *He.kWo-, with four segments, with
*Hek^.wo-, with five, the latter being the accepted
reconstruction for 'horse', and for which as^va- is
indeed the expected outcome in Old Indo-Aryan.

Remember there are three velar columns reconstructed
for P.I.E.: *k^, *k, and *kW, which then allows for
nine distinct clusters with *w: *k^w, *kw, *kWw, etc.

After Satem *kW was merged with *k, but *k^ remained
separate to later yield Sanskrit s^.

> Now I know you will come up with your theory that kw
> is not k+w,

No, it is you who are saying that 'kw' is not 'k+w',
which is why you expect *a.ka- instead of as^.va-.

> which I consider as learned flapdoodle.

Well then you have a lot of correspondences to explain
away.

Review this post, for a start:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/41998

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

There were no domesticated bears then either, as far
as we know, yet there was a word in the proto-language
for that animal too.

Putting on reins and bit, and even a saddle, doesn't
alter a horse's appearance all that greatly.

David