Post by Arnaud FournetNow we can take another cognate: the word "badger" *meH1-s'-
Basque is azkon where z is regular and k possibly reflects *H1
loss of m is regular in Basque
Kartvelian is mac^vi "badger" (*H1 > zero)
PIE is me:l- especially in Latin me:le:s "badger"
Uralic, here mostly Finno-Baltic is *mäGr > *mäwr- or *mäkr-
hardening of *H1 into k is regular in Finno-Baltic.
The original meaning of the word is probably linked to Semitic *mah.as'- "to burn, to become black because of fire"
so the word "badger" more or less means "blackard"
Mallory and Adams 2006 give *meli- 'badger, accounting for Latin meles and
Slavonic melc 'badger', words I link with PIE *melit and Latin mel 'honey'
and with the honey badger. Whereas you explain Latin meles via *meH1-s'-.
Apparently 'sound algebra' can lead to very different roots for the same
word, leaving space for an alternative etymology.
M & A also mention that the Ancient Greeks had 500 (five hundred) words for
birds, which means that there must have been many PIE words for common animals
in Eurasia, they say, among them the badger.
Tachash in the Bible is read as 'badger' by several scholars and would go
along with German Dachs 'badger' and Fuchs 'fox', Ruud Harmsenish das 'badger'
and vos 'fox' (*), and Italian tasso 'badger', all from DhAG meaning able.
Able guides of the sun horse and moon bull through the Underworld, the fox
guiding the sun horse (reddish fox, red mare of the midsummer sun rising above
the horizon of the ledge in the rotunda of Lascaux, fox on a Celtic stater
of the Curisolitae in Brittany, leaping foxes on a pair of central pillars
in a temple on the Goebekli Tepe, as explained in a previous message), the
badger guiding and protecting the moon bull in a hypothetical myth from the
Ural (evidence wanted; black badger maybe associated with a fire gone out,
leaving black ashes, perhaps referring to the cold light of the moon,
contrary to the 'fire' of the sun).
I uphold my hypothesis of an Uralic myth naming the badger in association
with the moon bull MUC, accounting for the badger words in Karelia and
Finnland in the West and maybe for the Japanese badger mujini in the East.
I say it again, a hypothesis.
* While here is a fact, a true actual fact. A medieval ancestor of Ruud
Harmsen traveled in the Swiss Alps and invited a bunch of natives to an
Edamer picnic on the shore of a charming little mountain lake, under fir
trees. Lo and behold, a badger and a fox were attracted by the exquisite
smell of the cheese melting on a fire. Das! Vos! exclaimed the surprised
Dutchman. Das vos, Das vos, gaily echoed the locals. And this named the
nearby village: Davos. You may know it from the annual World Economy
Forum Davos, where able ones from all over the world are meeting.