OP /the/ vs. /dhaN/ (fwd)

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 19 May 2004, Rory M Larson wrote:
> I have the notion that apertures tend to be =tHe.  If so, that will
> explain 'mouth' and '(inner) ear', but checking it against other parts
> of the anatomy may be awkward.

Yes, I can see where it might.  Maybe 'navel' would be fairly neutral.
'Nostrils', unfortunately, are a set.

> For 'hand', I still like the concept of it being a set of fingers.
> Since *naNpe is newly adopted to mean 'hand' in MVS, could its original
> meaning have been 'finger'? This wouldn't affect 'foot', which is older,
> and probably was not derived as 'set of toes'.

I think that Bob recently said that forms like *naNaNp-e were originally
'right hand'.