Handfuls of Unrelated Forms

[proto-language]

Dear Steve etal. and IEists:

----- Original Message -----
From: <X99Lynx at aol.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 11:35 AM

<snip>

> In a message dated 6/27/2001 9:20:37 PM, acnasvers at hotmail.com wrote:
> << the oxytone <i:os> 'arrow' referred by L&S to the root of <ienai> 'to
> go'...>>
> (<ienai> is th infinitive form of <eimi/ion>.)

> So I was not the first to make this connection on this list or in print. And
> so whatever sin I committed I'll promptly forward to Lidell-Scott.  And
> perhaps also to co-lister DGK for repeating it without your analysis.

> 2. The connection of <ios>, arrow, to <eimi>, go through, was hardly of much
> matter to my point, which has little to do with where <ios> came from.

<snip>

[PCR]

One of the reasons linguistics makes such little progress is that so-called
"experts" are permitted tacitly by their indulgent colleagues to propose
etymologies as totally naif as <ios>, 'arrow', from <eimi>, 'go through'.

Arrows for ancient warfare (where flesh would not be later eaten) used poison
when and if available; and thus a connection with 'yew' or some other plant
furnishing poison would be natural and expected. Arrows, as any child should
know, rarely "go through" anything. They go *into* things. I would bet that no
one can produce a word for 'arrow' in any language with the base meaning of
'that which goes through'.

Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE at email.msn.com (501) 227-9947 * 9115 W. 34th
St. Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES: PROTO-LANGUAGE:
http://www.geocities.com/proto-language/ and PROTO-RELIGION:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit ec
at ec hecc, vindgá meiði a netr allar nío, geiri vndaþr . . . a þeim
meiþi, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rótom renn." (Hávamál 138)