Re: Tocharian A wäs, B yasa

[Ante Aikio]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2000 JoatSimeon at aol.com wrote:

>> anaikio at mail.student.oulu.fi writes:

>> 1) What was the Proto-Tocharian form? (If it was something like *wVsV with
>> front vowels, it fits quite well with Proto-Samoyed *wesä. A loan Samoyed
>> > Tocharian is also geographically the most sensible alternative, if
>> Tocharian was connected with the Afansevo culture.)

> -- Tocharian A/B 'was' and 'yasa' from proto-Tocharian *wesa.

>> 2) Is there any other plausible etymology for the Tocharian word?

> -- Proto-Tocharian *wesa from *haues (with metathesis) from PIE *haeus

> PIE *haeusom, 'gold' also producing Old Latin 'auron', Old Prussian 'ausis',
> Lithuanian 'auksas'.

Thank you for the information. So, Samoyed *wesä ~ Tocharian *wesa seems
like chance correspondence. But, assuming that the Toch. form requires an
irregular (?) metathesis, the loan etymology perhaps remains as a(n
unlikely) possibility?

 - Ante Aikio