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

> Buck's book does not have the word for "heel", but I noticed some
> strange patterns from accross language families.
>
> First we have Greek Achilles (which I assume is something like
> /axil/ or /axile/) which compares well with English "heel".
>
> But Akkadian has "akilu" (heel). The well-known sound
> change l>sh (which especially splits Turkic into CT and BT)
> gives *akishu leading to *akshu and thus to Turkic Okche.
>
> I already gave Turkic aksa (to limp) (which I think is from
> *apsa, and which I linked to the root *ap, and to various
> other things). Sumerian has words like ik (cripple, frozen, I

think) which

> leads me to believe that this is a truly Nostratic root.
>
> I am curious, what are the words for "heel" in other IE languages

and

> other languages.
>
> (PS. I think the Achilles=heel=Okche was pointed out first by K.

Kartal).

>
> --
> Mark Hubey
> hubeyh@...
> http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey

************
In Albanian, the word for "heel" is <thembër>, but, phonetically
speaking, much closer seems to be word <ith> 'back', probably from *
(e)ik^-.

Konushevci