Title: A new etymology for PIE *mēms- 'meat, flesh'
Variant title:
- Nová etymologie praindoevropského *mēms- 'maso, tkáň'
Source document: Linguistica Brunensia. 2015, vol. 63, iss. 1, pp. 57-70
Extent
57-70
-
ISSN1803-7410 (print)2336-4440 (online)
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/133865
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
PIE *mēms- 'meat, flesh' has no generally-accepted underlying etymological source. After a detailed analysis of earlier etymological attempts and suggestions, I propose and support an etymology as a reduplication of an s-extended form of the root *meh1- '(ab)messen' — that is, meat being conceived of as something measured out or divided up. The derivation, as I will show, is another example of the process I propounded in a previous paper, viz. a generalization of so-called e-reduplication in nouns. This etymology supplies solutions for all the well-known morphological problems associated with *mēms-, including the absence of medial m in some Old Indian reflexes.
References
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[30] Watkins, Calvert. 2000. The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 2nd edn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
[2] Cohen, Paul S. forthc. Reduplicated Nouns in IE. Paper based on presentation given at the 14th Fachtagung of the Indogermanische Gesellschaft in Copenhagen, 20 Sept. 2012; to appear in the Proceedings.
[3] Cohen, Paul S. 2014. Some Hittite and Armenian Reduplications and Their (P)IE Ramifications. Indo-European Linguistics. No2, pp. 24–41.
[4] Cooper, Adam I. 2009. Similarity Avoidance in the Proto-Indo-European Roots. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers. No15, pp. 55–64.
[5] EDHIL = Kloekhorst, Alwin. 2008. Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon. Leiden: Brill.
[6] EDPG = Kroonen, Guus. 2013. Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden: Brill.
[7] EIEC = Mallory, James P. – Adams, Douglas Q., eds. 1997. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Chicago: Taylor & Francis.
[8] Fortson IV, Benjamin W. 2010. Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. 2nd edn. Malden (MA).
[9] Hyllested, Adam. 2012. Albanian hundë 'nose' and Faroese, NW Norwegian skon 'snout'. In: Jamieson, Stephanie W. – Melchert, H. Craig – Vine, Brent, eds. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Bremen: Hempen, pp. 73–81.
[10] IEW = Pokorny, Julius. 1959 (1994). Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 2 vols. Tübingen – Basel: Francke.
[11] Illič-Svityč, Vladislav M. (Dybo, Vladimir A., ed.) 1971. Opyt sravneniya nostratičeskix jazykov. T. I. Moskva: Nauka.
[12] Kortlandt, Frederik. 1985. Long Vowels in Balto-Slavic. Baltistika. No21, pp. 112–124.
[13] Kortlandt, Frederik. 1988. The Laryngeal Theory and Slavic Accentuation. In: Bammesberger, Alfred, ed. Die Laryngaltheorie und die Rekonstruktion des indogermanischen Lautund Formensystems. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, pp. 300–311.
[14] LEW = Walde, Alois – Hofmann, Johann B. 1938–1954. Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. 3rd edn. 3 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung.
[15] LIPP = Dunkel, George E. 2010. Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronomina. (Draft version).
[16] LIV = Rix, Helmut, ed. 2001. Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben. 2nd edn. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert.
[17] Manaster Ramer, Alexis. 2010. A Simply Perfect Bear of an Etymology, or Two, or Even More: PIE *h2r̥t‑t-k̑o- [sic] 'bear', OInd. r̥kṣá 'bald, bare', PIE *te-tk̑-on- 'craftsman' (with Some Discussion of *kwekw-l-o- [sic] 'wheel', *mēms 'meat', *tetr- 'grouse', and Several Other 'Perfect' Nouns). Unpublished (and unfinished) ms. emailed to me by the author, Oct.
[18] Manaster Ramer, Alexis – Michalove, Peter A. – Baertsch, Karen S. – Adams, Karen L. 1998. Exploring the Nostratic Hypothesis. In: Salmons – Joseph, eds. Nostratic. Sifting the Evidence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 61–84.
[19] NIL = Wodtko, Dagmar S. – Irslinger, Britta – Schneider, Carolin. 2008. Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter.
[20] OHCGL = Weiss, Michael. 2009. Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin. Ann Arbor (MI): Beech Stave Press.
[21] Petersson, Herbert. 1915. Vermischte Beiträge zur Wortforschung. Från Filologiska Föreningen i Lund. Språkliga Uppsatser. No4, Lund: Berling, pp. 114–146.
[22] Pinault, Georges-Jean. 2013. The Lengthened Grade in Some Tocharian Nouns. Handout for paper given at the Arbeitstagung of the Indogermanische Gesellschaft (The Lengthened Grade in Indo-European). Leiden, 29 July 2013.
[23] Puhvel, Jaan. 1992. Philology and Etymology, with Focus on Anatolian. In: Polomé, Edgar C. – Winter, Werner, eds. Reconstructing Languages and Cultures. Berlin: Degruyter Mouton, pp. 261–270.
[24] Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård. 1978. Zur Morphophonemik des Urindogermanischen: Die Erklärung qualitative, quantitative und akzentueller Alternationen durch vorurindogermanische Lautgesetze. In: Čop, Bojan, ed. Collectanea indoeuropaea. I. Ljubljana: Univerza v ljubjani, pp. 49–153. [Repr. in Selected Papers on Indo-European Linguistics: With a Section on Comparative Eskimo Linguistics I. Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård. Copenhagen, 1999, pp. 1–66].
[25] Rasmussen, Jens Elmegård. 1989. Studien zur Morphophonemik der Indogermanischen Grundsprache. Innsbruck: Inst. für Sprachwiss. d. Univ.
[26] Salmons, Joseph C. – Joseph, Brian D., eds. 1998. Nostratic: Sifting the Evidence. Amsterdam.
[27] Villanueva Svensson, Miguel. 2011. Indo-European Long Vowels in Balto-Slavic. Baltistika. No46, pp. 5–38.
[28] Vine, Brent. 1991. Indo-European and Nostratic. Indogermanische Forschungen. No96, pp. 9–35.
[29] Vine, Brent. 1998. Indo-European and Nostratic: Some Further Comments (A Response to "Exploring the Nostratic Hypothesis"). In: Salmons – Joseph, eds. Nostratic. Sifting the Evidence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 85–105.
[30] Watkins, Calvert. 2000. The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 2nd edn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.