Reconstruction talk:Proto-West Semitic/laban-

What about 𒋞 (libittu) ?

This Akkadian word is said to be from *laban- in PS, I checked the sole ref on its page and it tells nothing about etymology. Its transcription is <libittu> matching only /l/ and /b/ for the consonants. If related it would need a moving back to PS, if unrelated the etymology 2 of 𒋞 should be change (but how?), eventually if it's not known a "possibly related" should be added on both entries. Malku H₂n̥rés (talk) 08:14, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

The PS is given an absurd gloss in that entry, and even with that stretch from "white" (the Arabic sense is likely a later development), it remains unclear how to connect dairy to bricks. It's all StarLing bullshit. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 16:41, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Related to Proto-Indo-European *albʰós ?

I remembered this entry and found that *albʰós looks like *alban, both share the same meaning and the consonants /l/ and /b/ match. Also the PIE word is often reconstructed with an *a. This and the presumed absence of *b in PIE could suggest a borrowing from a language containing *b and *a as do PWS. This language and PIE were likely contemporary as other borrowings exist like Proto-West Semitic *wayn-. As I don't have sources for this, I prefer to ask here before to know if such a proposition is relevant. Malku H₂n̥rés (talk) 15:19, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

Why would they borrow "white"? If you compare a bunch of words, eventually you'll find some lookalikes through pure chance. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 17:22, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

As I was just looking at this page, I was just thinking "heh, this one resembles PIE *albʰós a little bit", but I didn't take it seriously. The resemblance is too vague. I also consider the argument regarding PIE and PWS too weak to rely on it here. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 16:20, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Also, PWS *wayn- is supposed to be a borrowing into Semitic (not necessarily from IE directly). You suppose a borrowing from Semitic (specifically PWS) into PIE, which is a considerably tougher ask, and doesn't parallel the other. Moreover, the Semitic word is *laban-, not *alban; the phonetic shape doesn't match, and there's no accounting for what happened to the /n/. A mere match of two consonants (there's no evidence even that PIE *bʰ actually does match PS *b, which would require more loan etymologies) isn't sufficient for an etymology (compare the well-known sarcastic dictum attributed to Voltaire about unscientific "look-alike" etymologies). The case is just thin. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 10:41, 2 November 2024 (UTC)