Re: Fr/lat/ru tu-vous/tu-vos/ - : etymology ?

On Oct 2, 4:42 pm, Franz Gnaedinger <f...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Oct 2, 3:56 am, Bart Mathias <math...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



benli...@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
[...]
Just out of curiosity, I've been wondering: Does anyone know of any
_real_ language in which "left eye" and "right eye" have completely
separate lexical items?

I don't think so. Probably a matter of entropy.

Nowadays even languages that differentiate between "right hand" and
"left hand" are in the minority (Japanese "hikide" and "yunde" are
obsolete, and even they were compounds), even though handedness is
usually considered much more importantant that eyedness.

Simply having those words is magnificent proof of the antiquity of
Magdelenian.

Gives me an idea for a new bumpersticker.

I missed the question by Ross Clark. I don't know of
any language that has different words for the right eye
and the left eye, which makes my Magdalenian claim
non-trivial: there were different words for the right and
left eye, right and left arm, right and left hand, right
and left leg, right and left foot.

Given that this language appears to have a limited vocabulary and
typically broad extensions of meaning for lexical items, this kind of
specialization seems very out of place.

Much to my surprise
I learned from the Proceedings of the Seventeeth (?)
Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference that in IE
the left and right side of the horse had different
names! (I shall look up that volume next week
whan I return home).

Please do.I will need to see a reference on this claim.

Why using different words?
It makes sense for hunters. Instead of saying:

there, look to the right hand side!
attention, look to the left hand side!

you simply say OC or AY ... The words are
different enough so you won't mistake one
for the other.

But looking in one direction or another is not a matter of using one
eye or the other. We use both eyes all the time. In any case, a
general word (e.g. monosyllabic English "right"/"left") would be
perfectly adequate for the purpose you suggest.

Seems that we can make a test
case of OC and AY. So you have a chance
to end my silly experiment, and I have
a chance to raise interest in Magdalenian.

I have a hard time imagining how it could be tested.

Ross Clark

.

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