Re: floor

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@> wrote:


> > Possibly borrowed from <Fortis> used effectively as a cognomen. I suspect that <malmutz> 'sly' was similarly borrowed from the cognomen <Balbus>, during the time when Late Latin /b/ was approximated by Old Basque /mb/, later reduced to /mm/ and then /m/.
> > ***R The b/m dichotomy is common in Ibero-Romance
>
> Unlike some scholars, I do not regard this as a Whalenesque "optional soundlaw". I regard the Basque borrowings with /m/ from Latin /b/ as characterizing a particular temporal stratum. I provided some details in discussion with Tavi, who refuses to look at the REW.
>

Doesn't it make more sense that an alt. like:

zakur = big dog , txakur = (little) dog Gip Bq;

is the result of opt. dissim. of * ks.akur > ks.akur \ s.akur rather than a borrowing from an unknown l., then a later borrowing from the same l. after very few changes, and thus little time? Which language would it be, why would the meaning of changed (then or later), why would another borrowing occur when the borrowed word would so closely resemble a now-nativized word, etc.?


There's even a PIE possibility for origin in:

* xYuL.-kWó+

>>

* xYuL-kWó+kó+ (dim)
* xYuL-kWe+kó+
* xYuL-kWe-kó+
* xYuL-kWa-kó+
* s.YuL-kWa-kó+
* s.YkWu-La-kó+
* s.Y... [etc.]
* sku-La-kó+

>

skúlax G;

and so, * s.kulak+ >> ks.akul > ks.akur > ks.akur \ s.akur > etc.