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| Robert Rosen |
 Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 7:30 am |
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In looking through words that were derived from the PIE root bhel-3 in
the American Heritage Dictionary, I noticed that "pall-mall" was
derived (via obsolete French "pallemaille" and Italian "pallamaglio")
from Langobard "palla" 'ball.' However, every other Germanic word that
was derived from PIE *bh- begins with *b.
In addition, I noticed that "psyche" was derived from "psukhein" (<
*bhs-u-kh-),' to breathe,' whereas every other Greek word that was
derived from PIE *bh seems to begin with *ph.
Would someone be kind enought to explain these discrepancies?
Thanks
Bob |
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| Douglas G. Kilday |
| Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 7:30 am |
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"Robert Rosen" <rosen647@aol.com> wrote ...
[quote:9bd9d39c77]In looking through words that were derived from the PIE root bhel-3 in
the American Heritage Dictionary, I noticed that "pall-mall" was
derived (via obsolete French "pallemaille" and Italian "pallamaglio")
from Langobard "palla" 'ball.' However, every other Germanic word that
was derived from PIE *bh- begins with *b.
[/quote:9bd9d39c77]
Langobardic, although an East Germanic language, took part in the "High
German" consonant-shift; it was in geographic contiguity with the southern
part of Old High German, and experienced the regional "High German" shift
intensely enough to devoice initial voiced stops. Another example is
Italian <taccola> 'jackdaw' from Lgb. <tahhala>; the NHG cognate is of
course <Dohle>.
[quote:9bd9d39c77]In addition, I noticed that "psyche" was derived from "psukhein" (
*bhs-u-kh-),' to breathe,' whereas every other Greek word that was
derived from PIE *bh seems to begin with *ph.
[/quote:9bd9d39c77]
There are other examples in the AHD1 under *bhes-(1): <psámmos>, <psęn>, and
perhaps <psi:lós>. Here <ps> conventionally represents the Greek letter
psi. Early Attic inscriptions use phi plus sigma (i.e. <phs>) for this
double consonant, so there must have been some aspiration in the archaic
pronunciation. That is, the Indo-European zero-grade *bhs- regularly became
/phs-/ in Greek, but by Roman times, the aspiration in the cluster was too
weak to be represented in Latin transcription, hence <ps>. |
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