Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales

Franz Gnaedinger wrote:
Apparently nobody is willing to defend the PIE
etymologies of English bear German Bär Dutch beer
(the bown one, or the wild one, or the overcomer).

This isn't a self-contained game in which the people present are required to start from the same position. The PIE etymology is defended already, by the people who came up with it and anyone who later commented on it. If you want to know what the justification for it is, do the research. The support it has received has nothing to do with the people currently sitting in this newsgroup.

[snipping Franz's "just-so" story; Rudyard Kipling's stories were intended as entertainment, not masqueraded as research]
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales
    ... (the bown one, or the wild one, or the overcomer). ... I don't see that anyone defends one of the etymologies. ... the overcomer and is not happy with the brown one. ... a bear so outstanding that the animal would have been named ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales
    ... (the bown one, or the wild one, or the overcomer). ... I don't see that anyone defends one of the etymologies. ... So they just magically appear in the reference books without anyone ever having done the research and written up the analysis that arrives at the conclusions reported in the reference books? ...
    (sci.lang)