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From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: "Slave" vs "Slav"
In-Reply-To: aeulenbe@silver.ucs.indiana.edu's message of 24 Mar 1995 01:50:40 GMT
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In article <3kt8hg$5k9@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> aeulenbe@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
(Alex Eulenberg) writes:

>Here's my spontaneous etymology.

[elided for brevity --rma]

>And indeed, the Russian word for freedom is "svoboda". Now if that "v" for "l"
>throws you, remember that the English cognate "swear" (which leads to "word"
>itself) has a "v" (well, a "w", but in Russian "v" is often pronounced "w")
>where Russian "slova" (word) has an "l". So you see, the proto-form looks like
>this:

English "swear" is cognate with Russian "svara" = "altercation"--Germanic *w is
never cognate with Slavic *l, always with Slavic *w.

[more elided for brevity --rma]

>I think with this etymology everyone will be happy. Isn't linguistics great?

No, everyone *won't* be happy with it.  Yes, linguistics is great; why don't
you try doing some?
-- 
Rich Alderson		[Tolkien quote temporarily removed in favour of
alderson@netcom.com	 proselytizing comment below --rma]

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