Latin and Slavonic for `moon'

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

"Anthony Appleyard" <MCLSSAA2 at fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk> wrote:

>{luna} means "moon" in Latin and also in Russian. But Palmer's book "The
>Latin Language" says that Latin {luna} < *{louksna:} [= "the white object",
>after the old IE word *{ma:n-} or similar became taboo due to superstition].
>Is the Russian form a loanword from Latin (which seems unlikely) or parallel
>evolution?

Parallel evolution.  If we apply the usual Slavic soundlaws to
*louksna: we get *luxna, which becomes *luna by the Common Slavic
open syllable rule.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam