Re: PIE * bhendh-

From: Francesco Brighenti
Message: 68384
Date: 2012-01-19

Dear List,

Yesterday I had written:

> In any event, I would not think for a moment that Eg. bnd could be
> a "Nostratic" cognate of PIE *bhendh-.

For completeness of information, I must add that both Aron Dolgopolsky and Allan Bomhard consider Eg. b-n-d/b-n-T to be a "Nostratic" cognate to PIE *bhendh-, and reconstruct two similar Proto-Nostratic roots with the meaning 'tie, bind' based, among other language families, on the supposed Indo-European and Afroasiatic reflexes of this root.

1) DOLGOPOLSKY:

He proposes a "Hamito-Semitic" (= Afroasiatic) root *b-n-T based ont he New Egyptian verb b-n-d 'to wrap, clothe', from which the noun b-n-T 'a kind of garment' is derived. He also mentions the Egyptian loans in Greek, buntos- 'an Egyptian garment', and in Hebrew, 'abne:T- 'sash of a priest', and adds that the latter suggests that Egyptian -d was pronounced as <-T>. The Central and West Chadic words Dolgopolsky compares with Egyptian b-n-d/b-n-T are totally unconvincing.

2) BOMHARD:

For Afroasiatic, he only cites Egyptian b-n-d 'to wrap, to put on clothing' without even taking into consideration the Chadic lexemes cited by Dolgopolsky. Consequently, he does not even reconstruct an Afroasiatic root with the meaning 'to tie, bind'.

I had said that the etymology of Eg. b-n-d/b-n-T is unclear even within Egyptian itself, not to speak of an Afroasiatic (and Nostratic) ertymology!

Regards,
Francesco