Etymology of sanskrit roots miS and miil

[Periannan Chandrasekaran]

--- Harry Spier <harryspier at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Dear list members,
>
> Someone has asked me if the two sanskrit roots for wink - miS - and - miil -
> ultimately come from the same source. Is there a common source to these two
> roots?

This is an extremely interesting question that connects IE and Dravidian
families.

Ultimately the root may look something like *viz
the -z close to the Tamil retroflex liquid z.

Dravidian has the root "viz" or "miz" meaning "to open the eyes" or "see".
Basically there are three phonetic processes in operation here that connect viz
and miS/mIl.

1. the alternation between a labiodental and labial:  v <-> m
2. alternation between retroflexes: z <-> S.
3. simplification: z <-> l

I am really not suggesting that it is a borrowal from Dravidian.
It is common to both IE and Dravidian.
Compare the "European" roots vis-, vid-.


DEDR entry #5429:
Ta. verb: vizi = to open the eyes, wake from sleep, gaze, shine, be clear;
    noun: (also mizi) eye, eyeball, knowledgem wisdom
    muLi = to open the eyes

Ka. miL, miLa = blinking;
    miLmiLan2e = a staring manner
Tulu: buLAvu = to open as the eyes
Konda: biRp = to blink
Kuwi. miNi miNi sini ki- = to look carefully
Cf. 5084 Go. mi-

And
DEDR #5084 states:
Go. mi- = to open the eyes
Pe. meh (mest-) = id., see
Mand. meh (meht-) = to open the eyes.
Kui. mehpa = to look, see, observe, perceive...
Kuwi. meh'nai = to look, see;
      mespu = seeing, sight, vision;


We can see that the European vis-  and vid- also are related to miS/mIl by
nearly the same phonetic processes. This time z <-> S <-> D/d/ and z<->l.

Actually these roots arise from the nodular/globular nature of the eye
which can be inferred from studying the Dravidian scheme for the visual
etyma.

The same lexical pattern underlies the other major class of visual
etyma in IE and Dravidian: the *kn class.


Regards
P. Chandrasekaran.




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