Re: A Semitic etymology for Odisseus?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Peter Whale <prw.peter.whale@...> wrote:

>
> The variations you speak off are known in other words as well, and
> they may simply be dialectal or other variants. It is wrong to say
> that they compel us to see a foreign origin. Alternation of d and
> l, for example, is seen in the "tear" word, dakruma / lacruma, the
> "smell" word olor/odor, and a few others. Within a Latin context,
> the patterns fits dialect borrowing.
>
> > Which Latin dialects did you have in mind
>
> Sabine, for example. Yes, evidence is slight, but the pattern is right for dialect variation.
>

To the best of my knowledge, Sabine isn't a Latin "dialect" but an Italic language of the Sabellic (formerly called "Osco-Umbrian") group.

We can't rule out Etruscan as the (intermediate) source of some bizarre Latin words. We've got for example laurus corresponding to Greek dáphne: or crepusculus corresponding to Greek knéphas, both showing a sound shift n > r characteristic of Etruscan.