From: dgkilday57
Message: 68057
Date: 2011-09-19
>Old English <forca> wk. m. and <force> wk. f. 'fork' are borrowed from Latin <furca>, which has nothing to do with <pergula>. In my opinion <furca> is back-formed from <furcula> 'implement of enclosure or confinement' (as in <Furculae Caudinae>, the narrow passes near Caudium, east of Capua, where a Roman army was entrapped in 321 BCE by Samnites under C. Pontius). In turn <furcula>, earlier *furtla:, can be explained as a regular borrowing from the Sabine reflex of *g^Hr.-tlah2 'implement of enclosure', hence related to Lat. <hortus>, OE <geard> 'yard', etc. The <furca> was originally a yoke-like implement for confining cattle, then was applied to a similar device for constraining slaves and prisoners during whipping, then was extended to other two-pronged devices, in my view.
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud" <fournet.arnaud@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Other words that have devoicing and some odd r/l alternations :
> >
> > Perg-ola : *bhelg
> > related to balcon and latin fulk-rum
> >
> Actually, this "alternation" can't be explained within the standard IE
> theory but as different outputs of the same Nostratic root.
>
> That is, Latin pergula derives from *perg-
> <http://newstar.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/ie\
> /piet&text_number=+884&root=config> 'board, beam', which also gives
> English fork. In a Nostratic framework, this root would be in turn
> cognate to *bhelg´-
> <http://newstar.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/ie\
> /piet&text_number=+139&root=config> 'beam, prop'. But Latin fulcrum
> would imply a root *bhelk-. This suggests to me the velar stop was
> probably a glottalic *k', probably some kind of suffix (aka "root
> extension"). Hence we've got two presumably cognate roots *pVr-g- ~
> *bVl-k'- (making abstration of IE ablaut with regard to vocalism).