‘Chevreuil’ en indo-européen

Abstract

A noun *york- has been reconstructed as the PIE name of the ‘roedeer’. This paper offers a review of the sometimes unexpected history of this root-noun and its derivatives in those daughter languages that have kept them: Greek ζορκ-, δορκ- (1), Celtic *york-, *yurk- (2), probably Germanic *raiχ- (3), possibly Indic ś-ya- (4). Unrelated to *york-, on the other hand, are Armenian ors ‘hunt, game’ (8), and probably Latin hircus (5), Luwian irwa- (6), Tocharian yerkwantala* (7).