CLAIM / COUNTERCLAIM / LIMITRECORD 154
DISPUTE
RECORD.
One scholarly question. Every attached source. The present editorial state, without pretending the last word has been written.
openproposed
Is the PIE salt root written *sal- or *séh₂l-?
Both appear in the reviewed references at different representational resolutions. SET-U reuses *séh₂l- as the canonical dossier node and records *sal- as an alternative notation, not a second word.
WORD UNDER REVIEWDISPUTE 154
salt
/sɔːlt/ · noun · verb · adjective
Common salt and the wider family of saline substances and figurative savor; an inherited Germanic word in a deep Indo-European salt family.
01DIRECT CLAIM EVIDENCE
3 SOURCES WITH A STANCE
A citation is not a vote. Each record says whether the work supports, challenges, contradicts, or contextualizes the position—and identifies the exact locus used.
SOURCE 01supportsmonograph
The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World
Supplies *séh₂l- in the existing dossier tradition.
Appendix 2, Proto-Indo-European salt item- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- J. P. Mallory & D. Q. Adams
- YEAR
- 2006
- PUBLISHER
- Oxford University Press
SOURCE 02challengesresearch database
Indo-European Lexicon: sal-
Supplies the consonantal alternative notation.
Pokorny etymon sal-- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Linguistics Research Center Editors
- YEAR
- Not recorded
- PUBLISHER
- University of Texas at Austin
SOURCE 03contexthistorical dictionary
Salt — Origin and history
Shows the same alternative in another reviewed reference.
Headword history: PIE *sal-- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Douglas Harper
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Online Etymology Dictionary
02 / EDITORIAL STATE
THE QUESTION REMAINS OPEN.
- CONFIDENCE
- proposed
- STATUS
- open
- LEGACY SOURCE SUMMARY
- Mallory and Adams supply the laryngeal representation; UT LRC and Etymonline print *sal-.
RESOLUTION NOTEThe dispute concerns reconstruction notation and analysis, not whether the daughter words belong to a salt family.