Pre-Indo-European Relics: The *borm- Root in the European Pre-Latin Context

• Main Author: Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: reuse and refunctionalization of roots and (loan-)words; (proto-)Indo-European stem *gʷhermó-/ *gʷhormo-; European hydronymy and toponymy; *borm- (> *bormo) root; pre-Indo-European and proto-IndoEuropean
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80392; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/40562; http://www.actalinguistica.com/journal/index.php/al/article/view/74
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper provides an innovative hermeneutic interpretation of the possible pre-Indo-European origins of the root *borm- (> *bormo) ‘warm water, hot water’ according to a new convergent approach. The stem *borm- (> *bormo) is considered in this study as not directly related to the (proto-)Indo-European root *gʷhermó-/ *gʷhormo- ‘warm, hot’. It could be, rather, a trace of the pre-Indo-European linguistic substrate, with the voiced bilabial (/b/) phonetic treatment of the voiced aspirate labiovelar consonant *GwH. The presumably pre-Indo-European root *borm- (> *bormo) would have been, over time, transferred (after the possible «arrival» of the IndoEuropeans in their European territories) in the linguistic system of (proto-)Indo-European through a process of reuse and refunctionalization of roots and (loan-)words due to linguistic contact. Phonetically adapted to the (proto-)Indo-European standards and equated with the stem *gʷhermó-/ *gʷhormo-, the root *borm- (> *bormo) could have been preserved in the hydronymy and toponymy of North-Western Italy, for instance in the river name Bòrmida (water course flowing between Liguria and Southern Piedmont) and in the place name Bòrmio (small town located in Lombardy).