Re: Etymological Help Needed


"Robert Rosen" <rosen647@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:sjlga15si9jgicq868patb75a9n9j0qp13@xxxxxxxxxx
> In looking through words that were derived from the PIE root bhel-3 in
> the American Heritage Dictionary, I noticed that "pall-mall" was
> derived (via obsolete French "pallemaille" and Italian "pallamaglio")
> from Langobard "palla" 'ball.' However, every other Germanic word that
> was derived from PIE *bh- begins with *b.

I'm not entirely certain, but I think this is because of what's called the
Second Germanic Sound Shift, or the High German Sound Shift. As the (latter)
name suggests, it affected those dialects of West Germanic that were spoken
in the south of the Germanic area - so southern Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. Standard German exhibits this shift somewhat, but not
completely. The shift as it applies to Standard German has affected Germanic
p, t, and k (this last incompletely) by affricating or fricating them
depending on position; I'm a bit unsure, but I suppose it is possible that
in Langobardic (quite south, to be impacting on Italian) has also done
something to its voiced consonants, thus changing Proto-Germanic *b- to p-.

(I'm unsure because, while I've heard it given as standard that 'palla'
comes from a High German shift from b- to p-, I can't seem to find any
documented examples of that shift; I don't have many Germanic reference
books handy at the moment, however).

So the derivation of IE *bh- > Proto-Germanic *b- is still correct; the p-
is the result of a secondary change within Langobardic.

> In addition, I noticed that "psyche" was derived from "psukhein" (<
> *bhs-u-kh-),' to breathe,' whereas every other Greek word that was
> derived from PIE *bh seems to begin with *ph.

It's a standard change in Greek to deaspirate in front of /s/. For example,
you can see it in the inflection of the perfect middle; the paradigm in
Smyth's grammar is here:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0007&query=page%3D%23124&layout=&loc=400.
Notice in particular the inflection of the second verb, grapho; the stem is
graph-, but when it comes into contact with the s- of the -sai ending
(second person singular), the expected cluster -phs- changes to -ps-
(written with the letter psi).

Incidentally, what other descendants of that IE root are given? It doesn't
seem to have anything vaguely similar to the syllabic structure of IE
(putting sibilants after stops, for instance), not to mention the oddness of
having an aspirated voiced stop before a voiceless sibilant - I'd be very
surprised if there was no assimilation during the IE phase itself in such a
case!

Neeraj Mathur


.

Relevant Pages

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