Paired Horse and PIE breakup

[H.M.Hubey]

S.Kalyanaraman wrote:
>

> Everything seems thinkable, given the serious methodological problems of
> matching archaeology and language, to establish chronology from, say, late 3rd
> millennium BC. But the idea of starting with bronze-age lexemes seems
> promising... Since there are lots of theoretical possibilities, let us also
> look at some transportation lexemes and IE synonyms, from Carl Darling Buck to
> formulate some statistically testable hypotheses:

Wheels cannot be made to hold up or hold together without some means to
fasten them. The earliest ones I have seen was in a book on Sumeria
circa 2600 BC. In order to construct this planks have to be cut from
wood, which means that they have to be sawed lengthwise, then nailed
together. At least bronze tools would be needed. Secondly, it would
have to be in an area which has wood. The Ukrainian steppes is hardly
the place to be doing wood-working, and indeed no steppe area is
suited for it. Third, even in areas where there is wood, they would
have to have the bronze tools, and they would have to either buy
them someplace or make them there. Fourth, if they have to buy them,
then in all likelihood those who sold it to them were probably already
making wheels, and carts too.

The fact that they all have cognate words only means that they could
have all borrowed these from the same source.


> Axle (10.77): aks.a (Skt.), os' (Russ.), ahsa (OHG), eje (Sp.)

Look at Sumerian for wheel; gigir; Turkic gicir (squeaking sound of
a wheel), teker (wheel), togerek (round, in Karachay-Balkar),
kerek (in Hungarian), etc. What does this prove?

>
> Yoke (10.78): yuga (Skt.), jaram (Scr.), joh, juh (OHG), giogo (It.)

KB for yoke is 'cek'. Turkish for 'to pull' is /chek/.

The real question to ask here is from what word is 'yuga' derived? If it
is derived from nothing, it is highly suspect. People when they find new
invention stretch presently used words analogically, unless as in the
recent
few centuries scientists concatenate words from Greek and Latin to
create
new words like isothermal, entropy, etc. Chances are no such thing
happened
and people used some other commonly used word in extension to apply to
the
gadget.

> Wheel (10.76): cakra (Skt.), koleso (Russ.), ratas, tekinis (Lith.), rad
> (OHG), hvel, hjo_l (ON.), rota (Lat.)

Some people doggedly create their own words for new inventions. For
example
although words like 'kanser', and 'ulser' or 'konsert' or 'konser' are
used by some, others invent their own new words like 'rak' (for cancer)
etc.

> Cart (10.75): va_s'a (Av.), ya_na, va_hana, anas (Skt.), povozka, telega
> (Russ.), kola, taljige (Scr.), wagon, reita, carra (OHG), reio, vagn, kartr
> (ON.), vettura, carro (It.), karr (Br.)

An automobile is called a 'car' in English as well as the wagons on
trains. It's probably similar analogical reasoning that would have been
used.


> There should be other lexemes (semantic clusters) which are as ancient in
> cognate languages.Is there a linguistic method to isolate and date these
> lexemes, consistent with, for e.g. the Sintashta archaeological finds of
> solid-wheeled chariot fragments?

If the above words are derived from native words, it might help to know
from which words they are derived.

> Same question goes for bronze-age terms for ores, refining, forging and
> metals, since some hardened metal components are also integral to early
> bronze-age transport systems.

It would be impossible to make wheels hold together without some kind of
metal, or even to make wheels. IT could not have occured before the
bronze
age. The earliest wheels to be made seem to have been solid pieces.
First you cut a tree lengthwise to make planks. They you cut semicircles
from planks. Then you cut semicircular holes in the middles for the
axle. You put two of these semicircles together to make a circular
piece.
You do the same to another pair. Then you put these pairs on top of one
another and rotate one pair 90 degrees and then drive nails thru both
sets to hold them together. This requires the ability to make planks,
drill holes, and then drive nails. That would require at least bronze
preferably iron. This still leaves you without a metallic axle, only
a whole in wood so that you'd have to go slowly and that is probably
why oxen were used.

--
Best Regards,
Mark
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