--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Cuadrado" <dicoceltique@...> wrote:
> Hello i would like to come back to topic Marko = Horse
>
> Celtic/Germanic marko- = horse
> Romanian murg- = horse
Doesn't this term mainly indicate a colour? See at
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/murg
> Romanian magar- = donkey
> Serbo-Croatian magarac- = donkey
> Bulgarian magare- = donkey
>
> metathesis magar->makar->mark-?
Aren't these words from a Thracian or Illyrian substrate (cf. also
Albanian magar 'donkey')? Be that as it may, a donkey is not a horse!
> Sanskrit marga-/mrga- = kind of antilope and markata- =
> spider/monkey
1) Vedic mr.ga- 'wild animal, game, forest animal, antelope' and
ma:rga- 'way, path track (originally, of the hunter)', cognate to
Avestan m@...@Ga- 'bird', are probably from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mr.ga-
, yet the latter word has no convincing IE etymology. Alexander
Lubotsky regards it as a Central Asian substrate word in Indo-
Iranian.
2) According to Thomas Burrow, Vedic markat.a- 'monkey', in later
times also attested as marka-, is to be distinguished from Skt.
markat.a(ka-) 'spider', and is possibly a -t.a- extension of marka-,
a term Burrow sees as a Dravidian loan (cf. Kannada man.ga- 'monkey'
etc. -- an -r- may have been assimilated in the Drav. words).
> Baltic marg- = ox/cow/dog
???
> Turkish merkep- = donkey/horse
This is an Arabic loan in Turkish. The Arabic term markab- means 'a
ship, boat', but its feminine markaba- means 'vehicle, carriage'.
This term is relatable to the basic meaning of the Arabic
triconsonantal verbal root, rakiba- 'ride an animal' (from Proto-
Semitic *rkb-).
> Manchu morin- = horse
> Korean mal- = horse
These are, of course, from the Proto-Altaic root noun *morV- 'horse'
(whose existence is, however, to some extent questioned by Sergei
Starostin):
http://tinyurl.com/6btvf8
*If* the reconstruction is legitimate, the Proto-Altaic word could
well be connected with PIE *mark(-o)- 'horse' at the Nostratic level.
> Japanese ma- = horse
There is no such Japanese word; all Japanese dialects have an
initial -u- for this term, whose reconstructed proto-form is *uma-
'horse'. On this account, Sergei Starostin rejects the traditional
theory of Chinese borrowing (as well as a connection with Proto-
Altaic *morV-), and derives the Japanese word from a Proto-Altaic
word meaning 'young of an ungulate' -- see at
http://tinyurl.com/3jao66
> Chinese ma- = horse
> Tibetan mrah- = horse
James Matisoff reconstructs the Proto-Tibeto-Burman form as *mraN-
(also *sraN-, *kmraN-); Starostin, as *mra:N- (or *mra:H-). Neither
of the two scholars connects these reconstucted proto-words
for 'horse' with the similar IE or Altaic words, although I am aware
that some other scholars have done that. I invite comments on *this*
specific etymological issue.
Best,
Francesco