Proto-Indo-European Roots

Proto-Indo-European Roots

*Root/Stem:*	*weg'h-

*Meaning:*	to drag, to drive

*Cognates:*
Hellenic	Greek *ekhos, okhos* 'wagon', Aeolian *wekhetó* 'he should bring'
Italic	Latin *vehó* 'I drive', *vehere* 'to drive', *vexi* < vegh-si 'drove', Oscan veia* 'wagon', Umbrian *ar'veitu* 'let him bring', *kuveitu* 'let him bring together'
Celtic	Common Celtic vegno- 'wagon' > Gaulish covinnus* 'wagon', Old Irish *fén, Welsh gwain*
Indic	Sanskrit *vahati* 'he drags'
Iranian	Avestan *vazaiti* 'he carries'
Balkan	Albanian vjeq 'I steel', ude 'way'
Germanic	Common Germanic weg- 'to drive', wigaz 'way' > Gothic *gawigan* 'to move', *wegs* 'way', Old Icelandic *vega, vegr,* Old High German & Old Saxon & Old English *wegan* 'to drive', Old High German & Old English *weg* 'way'
Baltic	Lithuanian *vez'ti* 'to carry', *vez'u* 'I carry', Latvian *vezums* 'wagon', Old Prussian *vessis* 'sledge'
Slavic	Common Slavic vezti 'to carry', vezo. 'I carry' > Serbo-Croatian & Slovene *vesti* 'to carry', Bulgarian *veza* 'I carry', Ukrainian & Czech & Russian *vezti* 'to carry', Slovak *viezt', Polish wiez'c', Sorbian wjasc'*

*Notes:*	It is obvious that Proto-Indo-Europeans were well aquainted with the wheel: see *kwel-. So the root above was supposed to denote the process of driving a wagon, carrying some cargo on it. The same meaning was preserved in the majority of languages. Still, many Asian languages, such as Armenian, Anatolian and Tocharian, lost it.