Re: The reason for Caesar's obtaining the two Gauls as province

 (...)

'calles' has root 'a', thus it is a 'mot populaire' and as such not directly descended from PIE by the same route as 'regular' Latin. Ie. it is a loan.

 

    No. 1) 'Mot populaire' doesn't mean 'loan'. 2) There are plenty of sources for Latin /a/ (see Schrijver, Laryngeals 1991), e.g. from */e/ after PIE pure velar */k/

 

 

> With such a reasoning,
> You could state that the PIE rex-word, because it's attested from
> Ireland to India, must be a loan from a language in between (e.g.
> Phrygian)

I can't see the parallel. I was arguing from the proximity of the descendants, not the opposite.

Torsten