Homonyms and Synonyms (was: Lislakh)

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 66925
Date: 2010-12-03

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "piervantrink" <piervantrink@...> wrote:

> 1/How could be same roots have such different meanings(for example exist 4 "pel" 1st "pel"=flour,2nd "pel"=gray,3rd"pel"=skin,4th "pel"=flat)!

Homonyms exist in all languages. Also, the 4th example is *pelh2 - the laryngeals probably mattered to the Proto-Indo-European speakers.

The homonymous roots could coexist because the derived words were quite different. The words listed for skin generally have a nasal suffix, either -n- or -men(-). The best bet for the nominative singular of the actual PIE form is, I think, *pelmn. (with the /n/ being syllabic).

The 'flour' and 'grey' forms are less clearly distinguished. A lot of the forms have the -w- suffix, but I do wonder if the two words are in fact related.

The situation is actually even more complex - Pokorny gives a few more roots.

As to how this situation could have arisen, well, PIE is generally believed to have recently undergone a merger of its short vowels.

> 2/How could be synonims exist with different roots(such as skin which has at least 3 listed different proto ie roots)!

The three roots are *pel, *twek-o and *mois-o. They probably had as much difficulty co-existing as English _skin_, _hide_ and _fleece_.

Richard.