On 2008-04-21 13:31, Patrick Ryan wrote:
> Piotr, I have entertained the idea that *me:mso- is the end result of a
> reduplication: *mésmos-.
>
> Do you think that is feasible?
Words for 'meat' may derive from roots meaning 'cut up, mete out,
divide' (cf. Lat caro: < *kr(.)-o:n, and even Eng. meat itself). Jens's
idea that some instances of *s alternating with *t and *h1 may go back
to one and the same pre-PIE phoneme (possibly a *c = [ts]) might work
here, since we already have *meh1- ~ *met- 'measure' ({mas-} is attested
in several Sanskrit words, but may be an artificial root, as those words
occur only in lexicographic texts, so it may be prudent to leave them
out of consideration). It seems very likely that *me:mso- reflects some
kind of reduplication, though the details are not clear to me.
<SPECULATION> One could even imagine something like pre-PIE *mVc-mVc- >
*meh1-ms- > *me:ms-.</SPECULATION>
Piotr