On Tocharian B kents* and the origin of PIE *ǵhans-

Athanaric Huard (1)

1 EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études

ADAMS (2011; 2013: 207) was the first scholar to identify and discuss Tocharian B kents*, the presumed name of the "goose". But a new discussion of this term is needed for two reasons: 1) despite the uncertainty expressed by ADAMS, it can be shown in the light of new evidences and parallel texts that TB kents* matches Sanskrit haṃsa- and thus definitely means 'goose'. 2) This term presents an interesting problem of phonology and morphology: TB kents* cannot be the reflex of PIE *ǵʰans-, which should result in TB *kāṃ. Reviewing the explanations proposed by ADAMS, a new solution, based on the reconstructed inflection of root nouns in Common Tocharian, is here proposed. In a second part, the problem of the origin of PIE *!ʰans- will be addressed: it is firstly argued that the usual etymology of this word, according to which *ǵʰans-should be linked to the verbal stem of Greek χάσκω and Old Norse gana 'to gape', was probably influenced by a medieval Greek etymology, but is unlikely, because it does not match the general conception of this bird in ancient cultures. Then, the hypothesis of an onomatopoeic origin of *ǵʰans-will be explored by a cross-linguistic study of the onomatopoeia for the goose call and by an analysis of their acoustic features compared to those of the call. Since there are several parallels for names of the "goose" in other languages, and since PIE *ǵʰans- is rather close to onomatopoeias for the goose call, an onomatopoeic origin for this word appears possible.

Domaines: Linguistique; Religions; Littératures

Athanaric Huard. On Tocharian B kents* and the origin of PIE *ǵhans-. Wékwos. Revue d'études indo-européennes, 2020, 5, pp.215-262. ⟨hal-03458885⟩