ἄμφενα

Grammatical information: m.

Meaning: `neck, throat; isthmus' (Il.).

Other forms: Aeol. acc. ἄμφενα (Theoc. 30. 28). αὔφην in Jo. Gramm. Comp. 3, 16 is very doubtful, cf. Solmsen, Wortforsch. 118 n. 2. ἄμφην· αὐχήν, τράχηλος H.; also ἀμφήν· αὐλήν H.

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]

Etymology: On ἄμφην beside αὐχήν see Pisani, RiLi 1 (1950) 182f. Schwyzer 296 assumed for ἄμφην *ἀγχϜ-ήν, connecting Skt. aṃhú- `narrow' etc. (s. ἄγχω), which with anticipation of the labial would have given αὐχήν. This is an improbable construction, the process unparallelled. One connects Arm. awji-k` (pl.) `neck', but the connection is quite difficult, Clackson 1994, 107ff. - The variants cannot be explained as Greek or IE, so the word will come from the substr. Variation labial\/velar is rare (Fur. 388, φωριαμός \/ χ.; but cf. γέφυρα \/ βέφυρα); also α\/αυ is rare; m\/w occurs mostly before n or intervocalic (Fur. 242 - 247). Therefore I think we must compare the type δάφνη \/ δαυχνα-, which Furnée 229 - 233 explains as showing variation labial\/w. I think that these forms had a labio-velar, gʷ, which either gave φ (in Aeolic) or - υχ- with anticipation of the labial element (Beekes Pre-Greek). Thus we have *ἀφ-ην\/ αὐ-χήν; ἄμφ-ην then has the well-known prenasalisation. Whatever the exact development, it is clear that substr. origin, and only that, can explain the variants. The Armenian form does not prove IE origin, as it can be a loan from an Anatolian language, cf. γέφυρα - kamurǰ (Beekes, Glotta 2003?).

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