Re: Ligurian

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Tavi" <oalexandre@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Tavi" <oalexandre@> wrote:
> >
> > I honestly think professional linguists (including of course IE-ists)
> > are far better than myself in that. To quote an example, there's a PIE
> > root *dhabh-ro- 'smith' concocted on the basis of Latin faber,
> Armenian
> > darbin and a bunch of look-alikes.
> >
> This is a typical example of a *Wanderwort* related to metallurgy. The
> Armenian word is in all probability an Urartean borrowing related to
> Hurrian tabrenni 'smith'. IMHO the origin is a phonosymbolic root *tap-
> ~ *dab- describing the hitting of metal.

That sounds like a Gilded Age explanation, such as the one for the English verb <dab> found in the printed OED:

"Rather does the latter appear to be of independent onomatopoeic origin, being, primarily, the expression of the mechanical action in question by analogous oral action, including (but only in a secondary way) the representation of the sound."

So let's party like it's 1899, dudes!

DGK