Latin perfects and Fluent Etruscan in 30 days!

[Damien Erwan Perrotin]

 ----- Original Message -----
>From PATRICK C. RYAN
Sent : Tue, 3 Aug 1999 20:33:30

>Pat comments:

>Some might be interested in Egyptian jm-3, 'kind, gentle, well-disposed,
>pleasining, gracious, be delighted, charmed', which I believe is likely to
>represent an AA example of the same root.

I am quite sceptical about the relationship. If am- is indeed related to
amb, then the Proto-IE prototype should have been, according to Martinet
something like H2e-mbhi, or H2-mbhi, with an initial laryngeal. If it is
not, the prototype should have been H2em, then too with a laryngeal, as
there is no recorded VC root in IE and that /j/ is conserved in most IE
dialects. So unless you supose that the IE laryngeal is the reflex of an
AA /j/, I will going on finding the link you draw quite doubtfull.
It is still however possible that this similarity you supose is the
result of a early borrowing, much like prn for house. Don't forget that
if Renfrew's theory (or Sherrat"s) is true, IE originated in the middle
east at the contact of some AA tongues and that some borrowings must
have taken place. An instance of this is Sumerian tapiru (metal-worker),
probably borrowed to an otherwise unknown IE-like tongue.

Damien Erwan Perrotin