the Wheel and Dating PIE

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

>X99Lynx at aol.com writes:

>You wrote:
 <<The ONLY way to account for the very existence of the word in nearly every
>>branch of Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Hellenic, Germanic, Balto-Slavic,
>>Italic, and Tocharian)is that the word was borrowed when PIE was still a
>>unity.  Unless the word was borrowed when PIE was a unity, then there is no
>>other way to account for this widespread occurrence in the family.>>

>Well the wheel is one way, isn't it?  I mean the actual wheel.  Like the
>computer or the telephone or the automobile.  That would account for the word
>being so widespread, wouldn't it?  I certainly don't see any geographic or
>other necessity that would make it difficult.

-- we're talking about the WORD.  If the word was borrowed or invented
_before_ PIE split up, it would develop according to the usual sound laws for
each of the daughter languages.

If introduced afterwards, it would not.   What is difficult about this?

In point of fact, there's no question that the first eventuality -- the word
for "wheel" being present before the dispersal of PIE -- is what actually
happened.