Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/márkos

This Proto-Indo-European entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

The reconstruction at the PIE level is disputed on several grounds:

• limited geographical distribution in Western IE - only present in the Celtic and Germanic branches.
• the presence of rare/disputed PIE phoneme */a/; a reconstruction *mh₂érkos seems untenable.

One theory which does not accept the existence of this PIE word sees the Germanic forms as a borrowing from the Celtic, and those as a loan from Proto-Iranian *márikah (compare Old Persian (marika, “male, manly”)), from *máryah (compare Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 (maⁱriia, “man; male animal”)); akin to Sanskrit मर्य (márya, “young man; stallion”). If the PIE word did exist, it is probably a Wanderwort across Eurasian languages; see Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-m-raŋ ~ s-raŋ for more.

*márkos m (non-ablauting)

1. horse (Equus ferus caballus)
2. (possibly) wild horse (Equus ferus przewalskii or Equus ferus ferus)

Possibly denoting only a "wild horse" as opposed to the *h₁éḱwos (“domestic horse”).

• *h₁éḱwos
• *ǵʰéyos
• *mendyos

• *márkih₂

• Proto-Celtic: *markos (see there for further descendants)
• Proto-Germanic: *marhaz (see there for further descendants)

• Mallory, J. P., Adams, D. Q., editors (1997), Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 274