The Etymology of Vedic bravi ‘to say, to speak, to tell’

Abstract

This paper argues that the standard etymology of Vedic bravi ‘to say, to speak, to tell’ from Proto-Indo-European *mleu̯h2- ‘to speak’ (and its connection with Avestan mrao- ‘to say, to speak’) cannot be upheld, since it is based on an irregular consonant change that cannot be independently motivated and explained. As an alternative, two different PIE verbal roots will be proposed, *melH-u- → mleu̯H- ‘to say, to speak’ and *bleu̯h2/3-‘to speak or to call’, that provide phonologically and semantically regular bases for the words involved.