Riflessi indoeuropei nella terminologia iranica della vanga

This paper focuses on a new etymology for the pahlavi name of the ‘spade’ bēl. This form is comparable with part. and mp. manich. byr and np. bēl and it is widely attested in various dialect areas of middle and modern Iran. The traditional hypotheses have reconstructed a nominal formation with various possible suffixation from the root ie. *bhedh- ‘to dig’. But the solutions proposed so far do not explain the complex of forms attested. In this new etymological hypotesis all Iranian forms go back to *bardya- 'object that splits, spade, hoe' deriving from ie. *bherdh-yo-, from the root *bheredh - 'to cut'.