Re: apple

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...> wrote:

>
> Searching the LinguistList.org archives for the IE List, I got McCallister's
> etymology. On the Nostratic List was a post on this topic as well regarding
> G&I's proposal. Here's a synthesis of the viewpoints (including my own)
> presented so far between the Nostratic and IE lists:
>
> *(s)amlu- "apple, fruit"
> Germanic *ap(a)laz
> OE aeppel; OHG apful
> Celtic
> OIr uball, Welsh afal
> Italic
> Oscan Abella "apple town"
> Balto-Slavic
> O Sl ablûko; OCS jabl'ko; Lith. óbuolas
> Anatolian *sam(a)la-
> Hitt. samaluwanza "apple tree", Palaic samluwa-
>
> Miguel Carrasquer Vidal states March 8, 1999 on the LinguistList.org
> Nostratic List:
>
> "Gamqrelidze & Ivanov reconstruct PIE *s^amlu-, with *s^, which,
> according to them, gives zero outside of Anatolian (sakuwa ~
> *okw- "eye", sankui- ~ *onogh- "nail, claw")."
>
> Now, I'm not sure about this new *s^ phoneme that goes zero but if we
> reconstruct *(s)amlu-, at least, things are less speculative. I'd like to
> know where this word was borrowed from too. Semitish **Tamlu:, perhaps?
> Buddha only knows.
>

IMHO Hittite s^- in s^am(a)lu- 'apple' would be a consequence of Fournet's Law.

The Hittite word should be analyzed as a prefix *?\a- plus a root *mh\alV corresponding to NEC *mh\alV- ~ *mh\anV- 'warm'. This laryngeal fricative would cause the preceding *m to be denasalized in *?\a-mh\alV > *abol- 'apple'. And the variant *?\a-m\hanV would be reflected in Uralic *omena 'apple'.