From: Tavi
Message: 66325
Date: 2010-07-14
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>I think Proto-Italic speakers previously inhabited to the North of the Alps, and hence experienced the Foehn. The regions next to the Carpatian Mountains also have foehn winds, so this would also account for Slavic *u:strj- 'summer'. The meaning 'hot, dessecating wind' I attribute to *aus-tro- matches well the native reflexes of IE *Xeidh- 'to burn; fire' in Latin.
> > A change in dir. needs
> > no explnation, especially when speakers of one l. have moved to a place
> > w dif. wind patterns.
>
> Contrariwise, there is a lot to explain here. Latin has no other terms
> for winds/directions to support the idea of a 90-degree shift in
> comparison with other IE groups. Did the proto-Italici migrate from a
> place where there had been a sirocco-like wind blowing regularly from
> the direction of the rising sun? Mind you, I don't absolutely exclude
> the possibility of Lat. auster reflecting *h2aus(s)-tero- or the like,
> but I feel entitled to doubting it.
>
In Baltic and Germanic, this word would have specialized to name a wind from a given direction (either E or NE), although not necessarily a hot one.