Dorsey's Law again

[rankin at ku.edu]

The full meaning(s) given by Miner is 'stay in vicinity to protect young
(animal); stay within earshot to protect inhabitants; stay with pregnant
woman'. (Miner 1984:#575)  Seems to me it matches *kriN 'stay, continue,
sit, camp' a lot better than 'pack on the back' (which also leaves niN
unidentified).  But, of course, that leaves the glottal unaccounted for.
I wonder if an earlier form might have been *ha?ikiNniN, with some sort
of glottal transposition.  In that case, it could just be a
"Grenzsignal".

Bob


> In regard to haik?iNniN 'look after', I suspect that the stem here is
gik?iN 'carry one's own on one's back'.  The definitions in various
sources suggest hovering animal mothers over their young or humans
caring for sick and pregnant people.  I'm not sure what niN is in the
context. Some sort of auxiliary.  In this case the two syllables k?iN
and niN are not from original *kriN at all.  The 'on, over' sense
derives entirely from the locative (h)a-.