Horses

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

I wrote:
<<- What was the word for horse in Armenian?>>

In a message dated 2/4/00 11:16:42 PM, mcv at wxs.nl replied:
<<ji>>

I also wrote:
<<If Armenian used the *ekwos word for donkey, what is the source of its word
for horse? (And does that explain perhaps the 'semantic drift'?)>>

mcv at wxs.nl replied:
<<*g^hei- "antreiben, lebhaft bewegen (schleudern) oder bewegt
sein".  Skt. hayah. "horse".
See my other message
[which was:] Given the phonetic shape (*tsitsi-), one might think (just a
thought) of some reduplicated form *dzidzei- connected with Skt. hayah.
"horse" and Arm. ji, jioy ([dzi]) "horse" < PIE *g^hei- (satem *dzhei-).>>

So this appears to be a different word for horse - coming from a different
(?) root than *ekwos - with the sense "mover, self-mover, something that
propels?"  (I think.)

I assume that *g^hei has not been suggested as >*ekwos or vice versa (that
may be a mistake) so this suggests that the two words may reflect different
'traditions'.  And the traditions possibly conflicted in Armenian or at least
the outcome was that both words appear and either the *ekwos word was applied
to donkey first or the *g^hei word was applied to horse first?  And the other
was applied by default?

Does this make sense?  And if it does, could it be possible that ji<*g^hei
reflects a more native PIE word for horse or equid than *ekwos - which does
not necessarily show known PIE roots (that's my understanding at least)?

Also mcv at wxs.nl wrote:
<<Sum. ans^e, Grk. onos, Lat. asinus, Gafat ans^@la, Argobba hansia, etc.>>

Would this suggest that onus/asinus are not from PIE and that the occurence
of 'ass' in IE languages happens late?

Regards,
Steve Long