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



On Oct 2, 1:05 pm, Harlan Messinger
<hmessinger.removet...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

As obvious as it is to you that it was of key importance to the alleged
Magdalenians to have separate words for the right and left eye, and as
pervasive as you believe these words to have been as etymological
ingredients in descendant languages, does it not occur to you that it's
slightly strange to you not to find one single example of a culture
speaking a descendant language that maintained this vital distinction
between the terms for the two eyes?

Early humans depended utterly on their body,
while we rely more and more on instruments.
It wouldn't do anymore to say: a plane on the
right hand side, a plane in the sector of my
right eye, one says for example: plane at
one o'clock, as it is more precise. However,
language kept some distinctions, for example
in German _die Rechte_ can mean the right
hand, _die Linke_ the left hand. Consider
also that we use more and more things
that must be designated with words. More
words entering language require other words
being forgotten, so that the language remains
manageable. German has three genders,
English has only one gender. German is too
complicated for becoming the lingua franca
of our time, while English made it. In the
same way, the growing vocabularies made
the now superfluous second form for eye,
arm, hand, leg and foot disappear, or better,
one form survived in these languages, the
other form in other languages, with a general
preference for the right side.

.



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