Re: Etymological Help Needed

Thanks very much for the extremely interesting analysis, Doug. I'd
like to ask one additional question that seems to be related to these
words.

The AHD attributes the Gk. verb for throwing "ballein" to the PIE
gwel-2, and "bolis" 'missile, javelin' (> L. "bolide' fireball) to
gwel-2's "o-grade form." However, for some reason, the AHD does not
attribute Gk. "bolos" ' lump, clod" to the same o-grade form, stating
instead that the word is "of obscure origin." Why the discrepancy?

Bob




Bob

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 14:17:02 -0000, "Douglas G. Kilday"
<fufluns@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>"Robert Rosen" <rosen647@xxxxxxx> wrote ...
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> Thanks very much for the interesting analysis, and please forgive my
>> continued ignorance. But perhaps you or someone else could tell me why
>> the AHD does not attribute the Latin etymon "bulla" of Sp. "bola" and
>> French "boule" 'ball' to *bhel- , while suggesting that L. "ballena"
>> 'whale' may have come from *bhel-.
>
>PIE *bh- regularly yields Latin f- in inherited words. The best explanation
>of Latin <ballaena> 'whale' is that it is an indirect loanword from Greek
><phallaina> by way of Messapic, a language of the Illyrian group. Another
>possible example of a Greek-Messapic-Latin loanword is <galbanum> 'resinous
>sap of a Syrian plant'; the Greek form is <khalbane:>, itself borrowed from
>Semitic (cf. Hebrew <Helbna:h>). In both presumed cases, Messapic has
>rendered a Greek initial aspirate by the corresponding voiced stop, and then
>passed the new consonantism on to Latin.
>
>Now, one possible etymology of Greek <phallaina> 'whale' is derivation from
>PIE *bhel- 'to blow', from the whale's habit of spouting, but I am not
>particularly convinced: to me (and the AHD editors) it is only a _possible_
>etymology. And I fault the AHD editors for not mentioning that <ballaena>,
>if it indeed comes from PIE *bhel-, must be an indirect loan from Greek, not
>an inherited word.
>
>As for the root *beu- to which the AHD assigns Latin <bulla> and a few
>others, the fact that a "variant" *bheu- is cited raises a red flag. Since
>*b is quite rare in PIE (even denied by some scholars), it seems most
>plausible to me to regard *bheu- as the true PIE form of this root, and
><bulla> to be a Latin borrowing from a pre-Italic branch of Indo-European
>(probably, again, part of the Illyrian group) in which PIE voiced aspirates
>regularly became voiced stops. (The Germanic words assigned by the AHD to
>PIE *beu-, not *bheu-, constitute a mixed bag which do not convincingly
>point to a common root.)
>
>

.

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