From: dgkilday57
Message: 65774
Date: 2010-01-29
>A possible Celtic parallel is *garr- 'leg, part of the leg' in Welsh <gar> 'thigh, ham, haunch', Breton <gar> 'leg', Old Irish <gairri> 'lower legs, calves', and probably (from Celtiberian *garra) also Arag., Nav., Cat. <garra> 'leg', probably (from Gaulish) also Prov. <garra> 'ham, hock, hough'. This has no clear IE etymology but I believe it can be derived from West Mediterranean *garra 'branch' vel sim., generally 'ramifying part', also 'nexus of ramifying parts', whence Sp. <garrancho> 'broken branch', Sp./Pg. <garra> 'claw, talon', Basque <garro> 'octopus's tentacle'.
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> West Gmc. may well have gotten *parran- from a NWBlock *parra, rather than directly from West Med. substrate itself. It is not clear whether the suffixation yielding *parruk-, *parrik- '(fence) pertaining to the enclosure' was appended in Gmc., NWB, or the WM substrate itself; a /k/-suffix is not very distinctive. Nor is it clear whether Welsh <parr> 'enclosed place' and Breton <par> 'plot of land' were borrowed from early OE, from NWB, or from the WM substrate, perhaps earlier than the Brittonic stage (but obviously after the Common Celtic loss of inherited */p/). If my comments are accepted, 'parrock' provides evidence for the extension of West Med. substrate up the Atlantic coast into the Low Countries, but it gives us no information about NWBlock phonology, since the root has no IE etymology.