Etymology of sanskrit roots miS and miil

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

Drav. m-/v- is common: maNNAn (malayalam) and vaNNAn (tamil) 'washerman'.
maNNAn < maNNutal 'to wash'
K. Zvelebil, Dravidian linguistics: An introduction, 1990, p.10
"Intervocalic and initial m and v are in contrast. However, they
also are in widespread alternation in the southern group of languages.
Doublets exist in many languages to a great degree; it is often
"difficult to ascertain which of the two is historically original"
(Krishnamurti 1961, p.43). Cf. Tamil vatuvai; KannaDa mada 'wedding'
(DEDR 4694; this indicates that the authors of DEDR would rather
consider the *m- original); Tamil kaval 'be troubled': telugu gamanamu
'attention' (DEDR 1328; *-v- original?). Zvelebil quotes instances
which show that this m/v 'confusion' continues in Tamil dialects
(and even in the literary norm, cf. Tamil vAn2am:mAn2am 'sky',
vIcai:mIcai moustache; in addition, it occurs in loanwords,
cf. Skt mRga > Tamil mirukam/virukam 'animal').
For details, see Zvelebil, CDP 1970, 125-8.)"

Are the m-/v- word-initial changes common in IE?
For example, are European words like vision, video
related to miS,mIl? Or, they are independent??

Regards,
SM


> --- Harry Spier <harryspier at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>  > 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.
>

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