Re: fungus = mushroom

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Octavià Alexandre <oalexandre@...> wrote:

>
> > A similar correspondence can be found e.g. between NEC *wimq'V `witness;
> > true' and Sino-Tibetan *mjuk- `eye'. As NWC and Sino-Tibetan are largely
> > monosyllablic, I think bisyllablic NEC roots like these ones are
> > actually *fossilized* compounds prefix+root or root+root.
>
> Oops! I was thinking of CVC(V) roots, which are actually *disyllabic*. But
> NWC has true monosyllabic CV roots, which constitute a large part of its
> lexicon and IMHO are a relict of an older stage in language evolution.
>
> Similarly, NEC *wimq'V `witness; true' can be analyzed as a prefix *wi- plus
> a root *mVq'V, which IMHO is genuinely Vasco-Caucasian (Basque begi `eye').
> Unfortunately, in his own "PSC" reconstruction, Starostin included
> Burushaski *-moq- `face, cheek', which is at least questionable,
>

But it can be accepted given the semantic shift 'eye' > 'face' is attested elsewhere: e.g. IE *t'erk^- >
Celtic *derk-o- 'to see; eye' (Middle Breton derch 'aspect'). From a zero-grade *t'rºk^- there're also the forms *drika: 'face, appearance' (Old Irish drech 'face, front', Middle Welsh drych 'spectacle, mirror, aspect'), *drixsma: (Breton dremm 'face').