Dating the final IE unity

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

JoatSimeon at aol.com wrote:

>>mcv at wxs.nl writes:

>>As far as I know, the Hittite word for "wheel" is <hurkis>.  No relation to
>>the *kwel->words. >>

>-- 'hurkis' is derived from PIE *hwergh, and cognate to TocharianA 'warkant'
>(wheel) and TocharianB 'yerkwanto'.

>The agreement between Hittite and Tocharian -- very widely separated IE
>languages -- would suggest PIE status for this word as well.

Only for the root, strictly speaking.  The words are formed quite
differently (Hitt. *HwrK-is, Toch *HwerK-ontos).  It does seem to
indicate that this (*hwergh-, *hwerg- or *hwerk-?) was the
preferred word for "to turn, to roll" at quite an early stage.

>There's a broad overlap in the 4 PIE words for wheel:

>1. *kwekwlom -- Germanic, Phrygian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Tocharian,
>Balto-slavic, and closely related terms in Celtic

>This probably referred to the wheels in a two-wheeled cart, given the dual
>form in Old Irish ('cul', from *kwolo via *kwolos).  "The two roundy-roundy
>things".

>2. *Hwergh -- Tocharian, Hittite

>3. *dhroghos -- Celtic, Greek, Armenian

>4. *roto -- Celtic, Latin, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Indo-Iranian,
>and possibly Tocharian.

>So while none of the 4 occurs in all the groups -- one wouldn't expect that,
>eh? --

Well no, but it does mean one has to be careful with phrases like
"the IE word for wheel" or the sound changes affecting it.  Which
one?

>every single one occurs in at least _two_ of the groups.  Eg.,
>Tocharian and Hittite share cognates derived from *hwergh, Tocharian has
>derivatives of *kwekwlom and possibly *roto, etc.

>They're all fairly transparent, too:  "the round thing", "the thing that goes
>round and round", "the runner", and so forth.

>This is what you'd expect if proto-Indo-European speakers invented the wheel,
>by the way -- otherwise there should be at least one loan-word for "wheel",
>one that isn't resolvable into a PIE root.

Wait a minute.  PIE-speakers invented the wheel?

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl