the Wheel and Dating PIE

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

>rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu writes:

>Several researchers have proposed that "wheel" was a technological
>word, much like "computer" today, e.g. Japanese kompyutaa [sp?];
>If this is true, the concept and the word may have spread so fast
>that it looks like as if it were inherited from IE

-- apart from the fact that the PIE words for "wheel" can be analyzed into
PIE roots, this wouldn't make any difference even if 'twere so.

If it was borrowed into PIE while PIE is still united, that dates the era of
PIE unity.  And if it was borrowed later, it wouldn't show the characteristic
sound-shifts of the daughter languages... and it does.

Therefore if it was borrowed, it was borrowed into unified PIE.