Valian/Etymologies

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*aʔtsa: Va. aas "girl"; Elas. -áz "nouns denoting female referents"

*aʔra: Va. aars "large", Elas. -ár "animate augmentative suffix"

*eʔil: Va. välya "noble"; El. Élász "wild, fierce".

*mir: Va. torm(<*tormi) "father", ; Elas. mir "head"

*mer: Elas. meret "language"; Va. merilinna (archaic) "poet"

*pV(h)ś-1, maybe *pæśi or *paĭhśi: Elas. pasz "stone"; Va. päht "stone"

*śalima: Va. salma "belief" ; El. szólim "trust"

*śilima: Va. silma "star"; El. szilin "star"

*tieje: Va. tee, older teeye "I"; El. "I (dat.)"

*talilet: Va. talle, from earlier tallet "speech"; El. tollet "a proverb"

*tur: El. turáz "maiden", possible compound of *tur + *aʔtsa, Va. torm "father"

*vaha: Va. välya "noble", Va. tavaha "holy"

*-en/-in: Va. -in "denotes plural"; Elas. -en "denotes plural"

*-lja: Va. -lya "indicates negative polarity of verb"; El. -lya "indicates negative polarity of verb"


1 — The original vowel cannot be reconstructed with safety as Va. shows /æ/ while El. has /a/; historically the equivalent of Va. /æ/ is El. /e/. It does not appear to be a reduced diphthong either as neither language shows a long vowel or diphthong. Furthermore, the Va. reflex shows /ht/ which is believed to usually originate from earlier /kt/-sequences. If the original stem contained /kt/ then the expected Elasian reflex would be **pás, reduced from **paks as clusters of the /kts/-type in Elasian show t-deletion. If we assume paʔś- as stem, then why doesn't the Elasian reflex surface with /ɑh/ nor Va. with /ɑː/? Instead Va. shows /æht/ which would point at a stem **pähĭt which is problematic as the Elasian reflex would be *pét /peht/ alt. *péit /pehit/ and not pasz /pat͡s/.