Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales

On Aug 3, 6:32 pm, Harlan Messinger
<hmessinger.removet...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dušan Vukotić wrote:
On Aug 3, 6:42 pm, Harlan Messinger
<hmessinger.removet...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dušan Vukotić wrote:
Is there anyone who is able to explain the homonymy of English bear
(carry, cause to be born) and bear (omnivorous animal/mammal)? Why and
how has it happened?
Because there isn't any reason why it *wouldn't* happen, and both words
evolved in unsurprising ways to become, as it happens, homonyms.

And how that "unsurprising way" looked like? Could you be more
specific? What bear (carry, cause to be born, bring forth) and bear
(animal) have in common?

Why don't you LOOK THEM UP and find out for yourself if you want to know
what they are? If you haven't bothered to look up the details, then you
have no basis for disputing them.

Maybe you believe it happened by chance?

Yes.

But
what if there is no accidental word-developing within the IE
vocabulary?

Who said anything about "accidental word-developing"? What does that
even mean?

In French, the words "ou" ("or"), "où" ("where"), "houx" ("holly"),
"houe" ("hoe"), and "août" ("August") are all homonyms, derived,
respectively, from the non-homonymic words Latin "aut", Latin "ubi", Old
High German "hulis", Old High German "houwâ", and Latin "Augustus".

thats very instructive. Thanks.

But of course I would use something like this to poke holes in the
standard PIE model.

I am sure there are no homonyms in any PIE reconstruction - since the
neogrammarian principles would prevent two words that sound alike in
the parent language from evolving along dfferent paths in the daughter
languages.



In some English dialects the word "thin" is homophonic with the word
"fin", the word "three" is homophonic with the word "free", and the word
"threat" is homophonic with the word "fret". This is because in those
dialects, initial [T] > [f], not because there is any common origin
between "thin" and "fin", "three" and "free", or "threat" and "fret".

So kindly dispense with your presumption that words from separate
origins don't evolve, coincidentally, into homonyms. There is nothing
cosmic about it. It happens all the time, and it would be extremely
strange if it *didn't*, since each language has a limited inventory of
sounds, and since there is no force preventing such homonymy from occurring.

.

Relevant Pages

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