Brian wrote:
" This is obvious nonsense. The fact that *dye:us is very
widely attested clearly shows that it must have been present
in PIE. If you assume OIT, then this word must have started
in India and spread throughout the IE world. If <Varuna> is
an equally old word, why should it not have done the same?
Why did *dye:us '[have] business to be present' outside of
India and not (the ancestral form of) <Varuna>?"
It is not obvious and it is not nonsense. This is mere shouting down.
Dyus will be present in PIE, IF PIE IS THE TRUTH. How do you account for it, if your instinct and belief that PIE is belied?
I do not know if there can be any logic for spread of some words and non spread of others. Why the word Bus spread and not gasoline? Both are western products that became prevalent world over equally.
In a PIE frame work, neither you nor Piotr could explain why Varuna did not spread on one hand to other cultures and secondly, neither is talking about how a wider spread should mean an older time frame.
Kishore patnaik