Re: Stacking up on standard works

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

>
> Starting from IE *kwep- 'smoke, odour' (> Latin vapor 'steam'),

Georgiev

> devised a similarly motivated Pre-Greek etymology for kupárissos
> 'cypress', although I find this unlikely, not only for phonetic

reasons

> (we should expect Greek ph here), but also for semantic ones, as this
> would be a *substrate* loanword reflecting the autochthonous name of

the

> tree.
>
> A possible long-range cognate would be Japonic *kàpài (-ia) 'a

k.

> of cypress or thuja' (> Old Japanese kap(j)e, Middle Japanese
> kàfè), whose purported Altaic etymology (EDAL 793) we'd better
> ignore. And in case you were interested, IE *kwep- would correspond to
> Altaic *gju:be 'to smoke, to roast' (EDAL 537) > Japonic

*káw@´r-

> 'to smell, to fumigate'.
>

The semantic match is good, although sound correspondences are a bit
unsual (IE voiceless ~ Altaic voiced), possibly indicating a more recent
chronology (Neolithic?) than other items.

> Starostin also proposes NEC *GHabriSwE 'gooseberry' (NCED 2174) as a
> cognate, although I'm not sure. In fact, NEC *-iSwE ~ Greek -isso-

would

> be a fossilized phytonym root corresponding to Semitic *?\i:s^.-

'tree'.

>

http://newstar.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/sem\
\

> ham/semet&text_number=+725&root=config
>

The semantic link is weak, the only thing in common between 'cypress'
and 'gooseberry' being thorns. In fact, the NEC word is better compared
to substratal IE *keub- 'a k. of thorny plant' (> English hip) and
Basque k(h)apar, gapar 'thicket; bramble, blackberry bush'. Also related
are Aragonese gabardera, Catalan gavarrera 'dog rose'.