From: Bhrihskwobhloukstroy
Message: 69596
Date: 2012-05-13
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:Bhrihskwobhloukstroy:
>>
>> I agree with +*baruja: as the likely outcome of zero-grade, since the
> best explanation I have of Lep. <pala> 'grave' is /bala:/ < *gWlh1-eh2
> from *gWelh1- 'to swallow up, gulp down' (cf. Grk. <deletron>, <delear>
> 'fishing bait').
>>
> Like many IE-ists, I don't think Lepontic pala 'stone; grave' could be
> an IE word, and in fact it has a nice Vasco-Caucasian etymology from NEC
> *tK'ep'V: ~ *p'etK'V:
> <http://newstar.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/ca\
> uc/caucet&text_number=1415&root=config> 'stone plate or shed'.
>
>> In an inhumating society, the ground swallows up the dead.
>>
> Also in modern capitalist societies, big fishes (e.g. financial
> corporations) eat smaller ones. Mortgages are an incredible effective
> trap for them.
>
>> From the anit.-root *gWel- 'to open for swallowing, gape' I derive
> *gWl.-meh2 'gaping hole' whence Ligurian *balma: 'cave, grotto,
> overhanging cliff, etc.'
>>
> I'd link *balma: with the Greek forms spéos, spêlaion (> Latin
> spe:laeum), spêlunks (> Latin spe:lunca), with s-mobile and a
> different suffix. But as in the preceding case, this can be hardly be
> IE.
>
>> You are free to derive this from Celtic with the set.-root, but the
> distribution of pre-Roman *balma: is Ligurian (centered on Genovese).
>>
> To avoid mixing ethnical and language designations we should use
> "pre-Latin" instead of "pre-Roman". The word balma is also found in
> Catalan, where it designates a not-too-shallow cavity on the rock.
>
>> I regard pre-Roman *balwa: (in Upper German <Balfen>, <Palfen>, etc.)
> as the Gaulish borrowing from Lig. *balma:, not a separate formation.
> More later.
>>
> In fact, I regard *pri:ma in the topnym Primaluna as a possible Ligurian
> word for 'bridge' corresponding to Celtic *bri:wa:, although this is
> only a hypothesis.
>