AW: nyUGkha in Vedic recitation

[srutavega]

Dear Colleague,
For the root uunkh which in all probability is of onomatopoetic origin,
please refer to my Verba IndoArica. Pars I (Vienna: Austrian Academy of
Sciences, 1997), p. 453 (no.617) where You will find a comprehensive
treatment of this verbal morphem and its use in the texts.
With my best wishes
Chlodwig H. Werba
ISTB Vienna.

> > >Dear List,
>
> Hello Frits, and hello List,
>
> My apologies indeed for this empty post!  For some reason my
> e-mail program
> has started to automatically send off unfinished emails to their baffled
> addressees.  And so this empty note was sent to the entire List,
> against my
> wishes.  Mea culpa.
>
> I had been interested in RV 10.94, hymn to the soma-stones, in
> which occurs,
> at stanza 3, the verb form 'ny UGkhayante.'  The connection with the term
> nyUGkha, the term used to refer to the practice of substituting
> o-sounds for
> other syllables in recitation, was made long ago by Renou, but to my
> knowledge the RV passage continues to be interpreted in the old way, after
> Geldner:
>
> ny` UGkhayante a'dhi pakva' A'miSi          Sie schlampfen ueber dem
> gargekochten Fleische.
>
> Leaving aside the fact that Burrows has shown that A'miS does not mean
> "meat", but rather "bait, lure," or possibly "spicy delicacy"  --
> it seems to
> me that there is good evidence that this verb refers to the exact
> same thing
> as the term nyUGkha does, and not to some inarticulate murmuring.
>
> I have not, until now, sent these thoughts to the List because I will
> probably discuss this hymn in an upcoming paper.  But now that the "cat is
> out of the bag", I would be grateful for any and all comments,
> references to
> recent literature, guesses at etymology, etc.
>
> [Note: no discussion in KEWA of this non-IE root; I don't have
> access to EWA
> at the moment; Elizarenkova suggests that it is onomatopoeic, but
> translates
> it after Geldner: urcha't' (murmur, grumble) -- is this a correct
> transliteration?].
>
> Best wishes,
>
> George Thompson
>