<Language> Nostratic word and distance measures

[H. Mark Hubey]

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The list has been dead a while. I think I have a word that will
as the equivalent of "7" that has been argued about by
Semiticists and IEanists.

The word is Turkic balta. Since I just finished reading Dr. Eren's
Turkish Etymological Dictionary, and in which this word is kicked
around a lot, and which I had already read here and there, it seems
like a good idea. Here are the Turkic versions:

balta, Turkish, TatK, Balkar, Krg
palta, Tkm, Alt, Tel, Shor, SAg, Koy, Kaca, Kuer
baltu, Tar, etc

balag (beil) Sumer
porat, Tokharian
pada < *parta, Saka
fa'ra't, Ossetian
*parathu, Old Farsi (?)
paltu < pashtu, Akkadian
purta, Chuvash
parashu, Old Indian
paltu < pashtu, pashu, Assyrian (assyro-baby-lonisch)
pelekus, Greek
pilakku,  Assyrian
parachu, Sanskrit


In Turkic 'bOl' (where O=o-umlaut) means "to divide, to split" so
the word could have been bOlek (compare to balag in Sumerian).
There is also 'bile' (to sharpen) and bilew (whetstone). Then there
is 'UlUsh' (where U=u-umlaut, meaning share,ration, division)
which seems should derive from 'bOlUsh' (division). It is agreed
upon by Turkologists that *p > *h >0  for initial p in Turkic.
Some words with initial h can still be found in Khalaj and found
sporadically in others. So if we had *p > b  in some words and
*p>h>0 in others these words would fit together.

What root is offered for this word in other languages such as
Semitic and IE?

I think this would also be a good discussion of measuring
phonological distances between words.



----------------------from Usenet sci.lang-------------------
To me Turkish "balta"  (axe), has always seemed related to our Dutch
"bijl"
(axe). van Dale's Etymologisch woordenboek relates "bijl" to Middle
Dutch "bile,
bijl", Old Saxonian "bil" (sword), Althochdeutsch "bihal", Old English
"bill", Old Norse "bilda", Old Irish "biail", Russian "bilo" (hammer).
Notice the striking resemblance between Turkish "balta" and Old Norse
"bilda".

Johan Vandewalle

--
Sincerely,
M. Hubey
hubeyh at mail.montclair.edu
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey
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