Pelasgian/was Etruscans

[Douglas G Kilday]

Eduard Selleslagh (1 Jun 2001) wrote:

>If [Hebrew] <ko:pher> can mean 'pitch', and <go:pher> 'sticky stuff', couldn't
>there be some semantic link, leading either to convergence of two originally
>different words, or to two variants of the same original word?

This could well be a case of convergence. The 'covering'-word <ko:pher> is
clearly native Hebrew, from the common root <k-p-r> 'to cover'. The
'sticky-stuff'-word <go:pher>, if it is (as I think likely) derived from
(unrelated) Pelasgian *kupar-, seems to have been assimilated in form to the
more common Hebrew word. Aramaic has a verb <g-p-r> 'to cover with pitch'
apparently back-formed from <go:pher>.

For a third-party borrowing with k- in Greek and g- in West Semitic, we also
have the 'tin'-word: Gk. <kassiteros>, Aram. <gas't'iyra:>. Watkins derives
this from Elamite <kassi-ti-ra> 'coming from the land of the Kassi'.

DGK