User talk:Silence/PIEcompare

*akw-ā-

Don't know where the "river" meaning comes from. I think that's common in Germanic, (Swedish "å", Southern German "Ache".) but I don't know if that should be considered the main meaning. I think the animate/inanimate (controllable?/uncontrollable?) distinction is much more interesting, myself. 惑乱分からん 12:28, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

So do I. *ap- (animate) and *wed- (inanimate) are interesting to compare. But I don't see strong evidence for *ak-wa meaning "river", considering that derivatives include Germanic "*aujo-" ("thing on the water") and *ahwo-" ("water, river"), and Latin aqua ("water"). I'll have no problem mentioning "river" as a possible nuance or meaning if someone can provide a source for it, of course. Indeed, I think that one of the main problems with Wikipedia's current list of PIE roots is that it's inconsistent and lacks specific sourcing, which I hope to help deal with in the future. -Silence 00:01, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(Also common Anatolian *akw=drink, or something similar.) Is there a connection between *ap and *ak^w-ā-, btw? I've thought that k^w turned to p, similar to Greek and Celtic, but maybe there's another root, and things are more complicated than that. 惑乱分からん 00:48, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]