sieve

Tue Feb 27 07:03:58 UTC 2001

On Fri, 23 Feb 2001 02:20:20 +0100 Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:

>Pokorny gives mainly Germanic and Tocharian forms (but also Serbian
>sipiti "drizzle"

I do not think, pace Pokorny, that _sipiti_ belongs here. I would put it
with the Slavic family _sypiti/sypati "pour", which must go back to a PIE
*suHp- (Don't have any etymological dictionary here to check on the exact
root form reconstructed). A parallel use is Russian _dozhd sypitsya_  rain
is pouring down. There are no phonological problems, as Common Slavic /i/
and /y/ have been merged in Southern Slavic.

Best regards,
Hans-Werner Hatting