Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
On Aug 3, 9:26 pm, analys...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 3, 6:32 pm, Harlan Messinger 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

Sheesh, you've never even opened a "dictionary of Indo-European roots"
and noticed all the homophonous ones????

neogrammarian principles would prevent two words that sound alike in
the parent language from evolving along dfferent paths in the
daughter languages.

Very true.

But nothing prevents them from having taken on different affixes,
surviving with different vowel grades, different accents, etc.

All of which seem to have occurred in the case of *bher-, which was apparently four- or five-way homophonous in PIE:

*bher- [boil] > Latin fermentum, Greek porphu:ro:, Sanskrit bhurati

*bher- [brown] > English brown, Greek phru:nos, (with suffix, via *bhruHnos); and Sanskrit babhru-, Gaulish beberu-, Latin fiber, English beaver, Lithuanian bebrus, Russian bobr, Avestan bawra (with reduplication, via *bhebhru-); and English bear, Lithuanian be:ras (via bhe:ro-)

*bher- [carry] > Old Irish beirid, Latin fero:, English bear, Albanian bie, Greek phero:, Armenian berem, Sanskrit bharati, Tocharian p&r, Russian beru, Lithuanian beriu; and OCS breme, Greek ferma, Sanskrit bharman (with suffix, via *bhermn-); and Latin fors, English birth, Sankrit bhrti- (with suffix, via *bhrtis)

*bher- [cure] > Lithuanian burti, Albanian bar, Greek pharmakon

*bher- [strike, bore] > Latin ferio:, English bore, Greek pharao:, Irish bern, Lithuanian bar(i)u, Russian borju, Armenian brem, Persian burrad, Sanskrit brna:ti; and Old Irish bruid, latin frustum, English bruise, Albanian bresh@r (with suffix, via *bhreus-)

*bher- [weave] > Lithuanian burvam, Greek pharos (with suffix via *bhrw-, bolt of cloth)

John.

.

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