Proto-Indo-European ‘fox’ and the reconstruction of an athematic ḱ-stem

Palmér, A.I.; Jakob, A.M.; Nielsen, R.T.; Sluis, P.S. van; Swanenvleugel, C.; Kroonen, G.J. (2021)

Article / Letter to editor

AbstractThis paper presents a detailed etymological analysis of words for ‘fox’ in Indo-European (IE) languages. We argue that most IE ‘fox’-words go back to two distinct PIE stems: *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- ‘fox’ and *ulp-i- ‘wildcat, fox’. We provide a revised analysis of the etymology and relationship among the various Indo-Iranian ‘fox’-words, and we argue that Baltic preserves remnants of the ḱ-suffix found in Greek, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian. Additionally, we describe how *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- was borrowed from Indo-Iranian into Uralic and we outline the relationship among the reflexes of this word in various Uralic languages. Finally, we reconstruct the paradigm of *h₂lō̆p-eḱ- as a unique type of hysterodynamic stem, which nonetheless has close parallels in PIE. We observe that a similar ḱ-suffix is found in PIE adjectives and animal names.

• All authors: Palmér, A.I.; Jakob, A.M.; Nielsen, R.T.; Sluis, P.S. van; Swanenvleugel, C.; Kroonen, G.J.
• Date: 2021-03-18
• Journal: Indo-European Linguistics
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 234 - 263
• DOI: doi:10.1163/22125892-bja10008