Pre-PIE as a PIE substrate?

[Robert Orr]

One small point :

Rick McCallister wrote:

> "To give an example of what I'm talking about.
> Spanish <minio> "cinnabar" < Hispano-Latin <minium>
> [and also the Min~o/Minho River]
> is often ascribed to Basque based on Basque <min> "shiny, lit up, sparkling"
> Larry Trask has explained on the list [many times]
> that Basque had no /m/ at that period
> so the logical assumption would be to look elsewhere
> and so I looked at the on-line MacBain's Gaelic Etymological Dictionary
> and found

> mhin, mhinn "ore, mine"
> Irish miin, mianach, Early Irish mmanach, Welsh mwyn:
> < *meini-, meinni-, < root mei, smei, smi;
> see Old Slavonic mjdi, aes; OHG smnda, metal, English smith (Schrdder)"

"MacBain's Gaelic Etymological Dictionary" is not the best source for early
Celtic in any case.  Apparently it is best for providing a corpus of
Inverness-shire Gaelic for the last century.

Robert Orr