indoeuropean

[Eugene Kalutsky]

Stefan Georg wrote:

>...Other languages have replaced this
>apparently oldest word for "hand", to wit Latin manus, Gothic handus,
>Baltic and Slavic *renka/ronka (from a verb meaning "to grasp", cf.
>Lithuanian /rinkti/. The limited distribution of this core-vocabulary item
>in IE has once given rise to the bromide that the early Indo-Europeans did
>have feet but no hands (mocking at linguistic palaeontology, of course).

Correction: Slavic *renka/ronka means "arm", not "hand". The word for "hand"
in Russian is /kist'/ - looks like it wasn't lost there after all.

Gene