IE in Balkans and Semitic?

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

"Glen Gordon" <glengordon01 at hotmail.com> wrote:

>>As I understand Miguel et al., IE-speakers were on the western or NW end of
>>the Black Sea: Hungary & Rumania, and I suppose Moldova & W Ukraine.

>It's still very western. What about horses? Were their horses in
>Anatolia/Balkans at the timing you suggest, Miguel? I thought they were
>pretty much in the Steppes.

There were horses in the LBK/TRB zone (Low Countries-Poland).
Not domesticated, though, and a different sub-species from steppe
horses.  I'm not aware of any horses in the Balkans, but the
Balkans are close enough to the steppe and N. Europe for the
animal to have been known there (after all, European languages
have words for lion, elephant and rhino).

>But then, come to think of it, is there an
>Anatolian version of *?ekwos ?

There is Hier. Luwian <asuwa-> "horse".  Now on account of the
-s- this looks suspiciously like an Indo-Iranian borrowing at
first sight. However, the Hier. Luwian word for "dog" appears to
have been <suwana->, and a borrowing from Indo-Iranian seems much
less likely when it comes to dogs.  So maybe *k^u > su is the
native Luwian development, and <asuwa> comes from PIE *ek^wos
directly.

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