--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "stlatos" <stlatos@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Francesco Brighenti" <frabrig@>
> wrote:
>
> > A discussion of the etymology of this term (whose eventual origin,
> > according to A. Lubotsky, "must be sought in the Near East") can be
> > found in M. Witzel's paper "Linguistic Evidence for Cultural
> > Exchange in Prehistoric Western Central Asia" (_Sino-Platonic
> > Papers_ 129, Dec. 2003):
> >
> > << **pard-/pandh- "spotted animal, panther": Ved. pr.da:ku- "snake"
> The
> > original C. Asia word seems to have had the dialect variants **pard-
> > /pand-. >>
> Obviously there were no variants, only one language (at least) with
> metathesis (borrowed into G panthe:r, Skt pun.d.ari:ka-).
> Reconstructing one syllable of a supposed borrowing instead of a
> complete PIE word makes no sense. *pr,zdn,ku+ accounts for all the
> Indo-Iranian forms.
Also, in "Aryan and non-Aryan Names in Vedic India" at
www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/Lingsit.pdf
he packs a large number of insupportable statements into one long
footnote:
In passing it should be mentioned that there are a number of words
common to IA
and OIr which are not easily etymologizable25 and must go back to a W.
Central Asian
substrate that affected Proto-Indo-Aryan or Common IIr26 (in the
Bactria-Margiana area?).
26 Common IIr words of this type and early loans include: (1) i akå, i
ikå 'brick' : Avest. itiia, zəmōituua 'clay
brick'; OP. iti, MP., NP. xit; > Toch. iścem 'clay'? (2) kapota
'pigeon' : O.P. kapauta 'blue'; Khot. kavūta 'blue',
MP. kabōd 'grey-blue', kabōtar 'pigeon'; (3) kadru 'red-brown', Kadrū
'a snake deity' : Avest. kadruua.aspa 'with
brown horses'; (4) li ga 'mark, penis' : Avest. haptō-iri ga 'the
seven marks' = the seven stars of the Great
Bear/Wain (ursa maior) :: Ved. k å 'the bears' RV, ŚB > sapta r aya
'the seven
is'; (5) kubja, kubhra 'crooked'
~ ku
a 'defective' CDIAL 3260, 3290 ~ Iran: NP. kund Bal. kunt; perhaps
also (6) pi
a 'lump' Khotan. pi
aa,
Arm. pind 'compact, firm' < Iran. (EWA II, 128); perhaps also (7) kha
ga 'rhinoceros' MS+, EWA 443, cf. N.P.
karka-dån, Arab. karkaddan, Aelianus kartázōnos (*kargazōnos) 'Indian
rhinoceros', all from a pre-Aryan
source? However, cf. Kuiper (as Munda) 1948: 136 sqq.
Other common IIr words are very old loans from an unknown Central
Asian substrate: (1) si ha 'lion'
: Khvar. sarγ, Parth. arg, Khot. sarau; O.Chin. *suån- ei > Jpn.
shi-(shi), Tib. se -ge; cf. also Armen. inc, inj
'leopard', Toch. śiśäk, śecake 'lion' which all(?) stem from **sengha?
(Henning: *s1e gha); (2) p dåku 'snake' RV,
p dakū AV, p dåkhu BŚS (EWA II 163), with Munda prefix pər?; cf. s
dåku 'lizard' lex., S dåku/gu MS (with Munda
prefix s -+ dak' 'water'?), S dara 'snake', etc., KEWA s.v. s dåku,
NIA: W.Panj. par å, Khowar purdùm <
*p dhūma? KEWA II 335, CDIAL 8362, Bur. (Yasin) phúrdum :: Iran. NP.
palang 'leopard' all < **pard 'wild
animal?', > Gr. párdalis, párdos, léo-pardos 'leopard'; **parθ > Gr.
pánthẽr, Skt. pu
arīka KEWA II 301; (3) śa a
'hemp, cannabis' : MP. an 'hemp', Khot. ka ha, Osset. goen, goenoe,
Gr, kánnabis, Russ. Church Sl. konoplja;
This substrate has also influenced several of the surrounding language
areas (Tibeto-Burm.,
Chinese, IE).27
There also is some evidence of the existence of the third branch of
IIr, Nuristani or
Kafiri (K. Hoffmann 1975-1992),28 apparently in the present habitat of
the Kafirs in N.E.
Afghanistan and in Chitral in Pakistan.
Among the northwestern peculiarities there is also the strange
interchange between
k/ś, which does not reflect the old Eastern IE pattern (k' > /ś) but
is limited to non-IA
words, such as karko a/śarko a (cf. Kuiper 1991, 71, 44).29
Apparently, in the NW area, the
pronunciation of k was close to that of palatal sibilant ś, thus
either k' or ky.30 This is not a
case of secondary palatalization (as it is found not only before i but
even before -a-). This
Germ. Hanf < *kanap-; nothe that the substrate which delivered the
Ved. and M.P. words must have had the same
palatal quality of *k which lead to a Vedic realization k/ś, was
noted, above, in Karkō a/Śarko a; (4) sa arpa
'mustard' Br+ > MIA, NIA såsapa 'mustard seed', Khot. śśaśvåna, Parth.
yf-d'n, Sodg. ywp-δn, MP. span-dån,
NP. sipan-dån 'mustard seed'; Gr. sínapi; < pre-Iran. *sinapa <
**sinsap (Henning s1ens2ap); - also: Malay sawi,
səsawi, or Austro-As. *sapi, sV(r)-sapi; further cf. EWA 712, 727: śi
śápå RV+ 'Dalbergia sissoo' NP. īam,
Pashto əwa < *śī ampå, CDIAL 12424), Elam. e-i-á-ba-ut = /eap/;
(5) madhu 'sweet, honey, mead', EWA II
302, KEWA II 570: Avest. maδu, Sogdh. mδw 'wine', Khot. mau 'wine',
(cf. Bur. mel 'wine, from grapes'); Osset.
digor mud 'honey', N.P. mai 'wine'; Gr. méthu 'wine', OIr. mid, OHG
metu, Lith. medùs, OChSl. medu, Toch B mit
'honey'; further: Uralic *mese, mete; Finn. mete, Hung. méz 'honey',
Chin. mi < *miet, Sino-Kor. mil, Jpn. mitsu <
*mit(u); Iran. *maδu > Turk., Mong. bal 'honey'; Arab. mådī?; > Toch B
mot 'intoxicating drink'; ~ (extra-)IE
**melit: Gr. méli, Hitt. milit; cf. also, still further afield, in
Polynesia: Samoan meli, Hawaiian mele, meli; mele,
melemele 'yellow', Maori miere; Tongan melie 'sweetness, sweet,
delicious', Rarotongan meli 'honey', Mangareva
mere 'honey'.
From W.Asia, however, stem: (1) godhūma 'wheat'; Nur. gūm; Hi.
gohũ/gehũ/gahũ :: Avest. ga tuma, MP,
NP gandum, Pashto γanəm < *gandūma?, Khot. ganama < *gamdama, Shughni
indam; cf. Burush. gur, Pl. guri ,
gure ; ultimately, from Near Eastern languages: Semit. * n , Hitt.
kant (EWA 499); however, Brahui xolum, with
Tel. gō i is the Drav. re-interpretation of the word, just as in Ved.
go-dhūma 'cow smoke' (cf. DED 2226 Konda etc.
goyi 'smoke'). -- cf. also the overlap with Dravidian: gardabha
'donkey', EWA 473 :: Toch B kercapo :: DED *garda
> Tamil ka utai, etc. and note that Southworth 1979: 203, 228 sq.,
1990: 222-3, 1995 reconstructs other early
contacts between Dravidian and IA outside the subcontinent, including
*tanu 'self'. - Finally, note Altaic
connections, (n. 27, 34) and some with S.E and E. Asia, n. 48.
-
By writing "purdùm" it's hard to see how he couldn't know it's the
tone that caused length and not the other way around.
Saying *sengYhos was borrowed instead of < *segYh+no+ 'seizer,
grasper, holder' is even worse, but the strangest is madhu. How could
it possibly be seen as non-IE?
Other things are also wrong, and he doesn't even consider an IE
source like *kwapnos > *kabnas > *kanab or similar.