Re Family Words (was: sumer 3-4)

--- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, "H.M. Hubey" <hubeyh@...> wrote:

> > 4. geme Magd (MSL, III, 125; D. 45)
> > eke büyük k?z kardes, (DLT, I, 685, eget gerdek gecesi gelin

için

> > gönderilen hizmetçi kad?n (DLT), I, 51)
>
>
> The word is related to Akkadian eHatu(m), eHaSu(m) (sister) which

shows

> up in Luwian
> as negash.

So the Semitic word for brother (e.g. Hebrew ah., I forget the vowel
length) is a back formation?

> It shows up in Turkic in various forms as eke, eket, egech
> (sister) and
> then in rounded forms such as Og (mother), Oge (foster, adopted),

OgsUz

> (orphan).
> ProtoTurkic initial-n is lost, leaving negash>egech. The Nostratic

root

> had to be
> *nekathum which also gave rise to Turkic katun (woman). Notice the

words

> nephew
> and nepot. No sound law of linguistics explains w=t (last

consonant)

> except mine,
> and it works accross several language families. Notice that since

we see

> English
> f (ph, e.g., nephew) and Latin nepot (p) and since Latin p=f

Germanic

A double gotcha! 'Nephew' is from Latin, and the traditional
pronunciation of the <ph> is /v/. The inherited form lives on as the
English surname 'Neave', so the springing of the trap is irrelevant.

Richard.