Hipponyms in Indo-European: using register to disentangle the etyma

Abstract

Abstract What was the distinction between the *márkos and *hιéǩuo- etyma for horse in Indo-European? It is argued that the distinction could be explained by a register based hierarchy that is likely to have existed in the proto-language. There is good evidence for the * hιéǩuo - reflex being used in Göttersprache like semantic associative networks. The * hιéǩuo - word is associated with the divine and appears in lexically identical poetic formulae and fixed locutions. On the basis of the multiple terms for horse in a number of the IE daughter languages, it is likely there was more than one term for horse in the IE period. A differentiation on the basis of register may have been a possibility, even at this early stage.