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From: svm@kozmix.ow.nl (Sander van Malssen)
Subject: Re: EKWO > HIPPOS QUESTION
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Date: Fri, 8 Aug 1997 16:58:41 GMT
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banks@ptd.net writes:
> Hi,
> 
> Although I know that Greek "hippos" was derived from PIE ekwo-, I would
> like to know more about how it was derived. Can anyone tell me anything
> about this, or where I can find info on it.

It's a bit of a tricky word. 

In Greek, velar plus consonantal u behaves like labiovelar, with
gemination if it's in the middle of a word, so k' + u behaves like a
double kw.

The labiovelars (kw, gw, gwh) in PIE end up in Greek as p/b/ph or t/d/th
or k/g/kh, depending on environment, in this case as p, so our k'u comes
out as -pp-.

BTW, Rix's _Hist. Gramm. des Griech._ gives only 2 examples for velar
plus consonantal u, only one of which has this combination in the middle
of the word showing that gemination in action, and that word happens to
be our hippos. I wouldn't be surprised therefore if this word is the
only one in existance that shows this particular rule.

The e > i is unexplained. It occasionally happens in other words too, I
think, without a real explanation. Same goes for h-, which sometimes
just shows up. So more or less everything in this word is a bit unique
or exceptional in Greek. Note BTW that the Mycenaean clay tablets have
i-qo (for hiqqos).

Lehmann (_Theoretical Bases..._) sees in the difficulty of
reconstructing this word evidence that the word is a very late PIE or
perhaps even post-PIE loanword.

Cheers,
Sander
-- 
Sander van Malssen -- svm@kozmix.ow.nl -- http://www.cistron.nl/~svm/
        * The 1-2-5 Page: http://www.cistron.nl/~svm/music/ *
