Update on *nekw and the N-word

Glen Gordon glengordon01 at hotmail.com
Wed Feb 24 11:58:53 UTC 1999


Hello, It's Glenny again,

Now that I have the source before me... Under Allan Bomhard's
"208. nitl[h]-/netl[h]- 'to rise, to arise; to lift, to raise; to
move'", there is:

IE *nek-/*nok- "to bear, to carry, to convey"
     (I've never seen this root. Does anyone know? I can only think
      of Latin nex and nocere - different things altogether. "To
      convey"? Isn't that conveyed with *g^no-s(k)-?)

AA *natl-/*n at tl- "to rise, to arise; to lift, to raise; to move"

Dravidian *nik- "to lift up, to raise, to get up from sleep"

Altaic *negu":- "to move from one place to another,
                 to wander about, to migrate"

Taking out AA (the only one with *tl), we're left with a clearer view.
However, I would go out on a limb and say that rather than the IE
cognate attested above, I would throw in IE *nekwt instead and possibly
Finnish nukkua "to sleep" (There's got to be a relation somehow with
nukkua) and that it all points to *nukw "to sleep" ("to sleep" -> "to
awaken"; "to sleep" -> "to sleep over" -> "to migrate"). Any Uralicists
in the house?

In all, I haven't personally verified the reconstructions yet, so anyone
is open to suspicions but so far this is my idea on the origin of IE
*nekwt.

--------------------------------------------
Glen Gordon
glengordon01 at hotmail.com

Kisses and Hugs
--------------------------------------------



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