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About the English word house

The English word house derives from *hs, a

Germanic root of non-Indo-European ancestry. It

would seem that *hs can be satisfactorily

compared with a Semitic word *uu hut,

attested in Arabic uu reed hut, which

probably also has connections with Yeniseian

*hus house. The Semitic word was borrowed

into Armenian hutsh hut, room, cellar. Germanic

*hus is probably a loanword but this root is

ancient, potentially of Nostratic origin.

About the word cumin

It seems that the word cumin has never been etymologized. It derives from a Near-Eastern source

through Latin and Greek. Greek itself seems to share a triliteral root kmn with a number of

Semitic languages, for example Old Akkadian kamnum, or Arabic kamn . This can be shown to

be an illusion. This plant comes from Central Asia where it is frequently called the black seed:

Tadjiksiyohdona (black seed) or Hindi kalajeera (black cumin).

There exists an Afrasian root *km black. It

can be found in Hieroglyphic Egyptian: km

black, Coptic kmom to become black, hence

a Feminine form km-tfor the earth, the mud

that Egyptians farmers used to till, and by

metonymy Egypt itself: Coptic kme, from an

ancient vocalic scheme *kmat. It must be

noted that the skeleton kmn of Greek is an

illusion because is in fact a base -

suffixed by -, a productive suffix that

exists in other lexemes like parsley. In that paradigm of plant names accent falls regularly

on the first syllabe. What must be explained is therefore only the base *kum, for the suffix - is

Greek.

The origin of the base can be found in Aramean (a)km black. Both names are attested in Mycenian

Greek: ku-mi-no and se-ri-no. The third nasal is identical by chance coincidence because Semitic

words are independent derivatives of the root *km black.

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About Greek pithekos monkey

Pithecanthropus (noun). An extinct primate

postulated from bones found in Java in 1891 and

originally designated as Pithecanthropus erectusbecause it was thought to represent a species

evolutionarily between apes and human beings.

Pithecanthropus is now classified as Homo erectus.

[Scientific Neo-Latin, genus name : Greek

pithekos, ape + Greek anthropos, man]

Greek ape, monkey is a loanword of

undetermined origin. I propose to compare it with Berber *abidaw monkey, a masculine word based

on a root bid, and Chadic *bidi monkey. It is interesting to note that the voiced phonemes of Berber

and Chadic root R=*bid have been adjusted in Greek as Pre-Greek *bhidh, that is Greekpith, instead of

**bid.

This is in line with the Glottalic theory of Proto-Indo-European.

About elephants and ivory

The word ivory comes from Latin ebur with the same meaning. Etymological dictionaries of Latin

usually do not provide a particular origin for eburitself. Eburis quite certainly an Ancient Egyptianword. It can be compared with three words with similar shape and related meanings:

- Coptic ab, eb 'elephant' from Egyptian jb, hence from *ib, with vowel *i according to the same

sound change as in *lis 'tongue', hence Coptic las, les. This word has a derivative *jbr 'ivory'

from which Latin most probably comes.

- Egyptian b 'ivory', from which Semitic words most probably derive: Akkadiansinn-iburi 'tooth

of ivory', Ugaritic bn 'ivory', etc.

- Egyptian b 'tooth'.

All three words have a guttural //, //, //

followed by /b/ in relationship with

elephant, ivory or tooth. This amounts to a

kind of phonosemantic matrix. What is

interesting is to compare Egyptian *ib

'elephant' with Sanskrit ibha with the same

meaning. This is certainly not a chance

coincidence. Sanskrit ibha is a loanword from

some Indian substrate *ib. It can be noted

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that the phoneme /b/ of Egyptian and of the Pre-

Sanskrit substrate has become /bh/ in Sanscrit.

About luths and guitars

This is a very ancient depiction of a Sumerian man

playing luth. This instrument was called gude in that

language. Quite certainly this Sumerian word is in turn

the origin of Greek , itself the etymon of the word

guitar.

It can be noted that apparently the consonants of the root - of Greek seem to differ from

those of Sumerian gude. But this is an illusion. Once borrowed gude or maybe gide (?) becomes

*ghidh- hence Greek kith-, with the predictable dissimilation of aspiration in Greek. This word is

another example of PIE aspirates corresponding to voiced phonemes. This is a Kurdish Tambr, a

direct continuator of Ancientgude.

About Blacksmiths, swords and iron (Part I)

Anatolia is well-known for its contribution to the development of metallurgy and iron-casting.

Among the numerous loanwords in Armenian that can be traced to the Hurro-Urartean substrate, a

particularly interesting one is: darbin blacksmith < unattested Urartean dabrenni, attested Hurrian

tabrenni. This word was also borrowed into Sumerian as tibira.

The most interesting feature is that on the surface Armenian darbin could also be compared with

Latin faber. Both words correspond well enough to reconstruct a pseudo-root *dhabh(r). It is quite

clear that Latin is also a loanword from this Anatolian source.

Once again it can be noted that voiced phonemes become so-called voiced aspirated in Indo-

European languages.

Wanderworts seldom travel alone. Next time I will

explain the wordssword and brass.

About blacksmiths, swords and iron

(Part II)

The English wordsword with its skeleton of consonants

swr-d can be compared with some ancient Anatolian

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words : Hurrian sawri, Urartean

sure, which was borrowed into

Armenian sour, sor. This is the

second word of Hurro-Urartean origin, after dabiri, dabrinni blacksmith, in relationship with

metallurgy.

The next point which will require more developments is the case of Latin ferrum iron when

compared to English brass. Both words are coherent with a pseudo-root *bhers-. This root can then

be compared with Near-Eastern words like Hebrew barzil iron. It can be noted that this is one more

word where *b becomes a pseudo-aspirate *bh. Interestingly, Latin and English can then be

compared according to these three words:

- dabiri, attested in Latinfaber, not in English,

-sawri, not in Latin, attested in Englishsword,

- barz, attested in Latinferrum and English brass.

It is quite obvious that these three words have travelled around the Mediterranean together as a

semantic group of loanwords.

About blacksmiths, swords and iron (Part III)

Today, I will explain the origin of the words: Latin ferrum and

English brass.

It would seem that the inventors of iron-casting were the

Hattis in Central Anatolia. In Hatti and Hurrian iron is called

habalgi. This word is the locative of a place called Balgi: ha- in

and Balgi in Hatti. Hurrian is a direct borrowing of Hatti. The place name is attested as URU

Hawalgina and URU Hawargina (not on the map above). Note that this place name has either l or r.

This form seems to exist in Kartvelian, Laz erkina iron, Georgian, Mingrel (r)kina iron.

Another set of words for iron is based on

*barz-:

- Kartvelian Svan bereiron

- Semitic with b: Ugaritic brdl, Phoenician

brzl, Arabicfirzil iron

- Semitic with p: Akkadian parzillu,

Aramean przl, Epigraphic South Arabic

frzn, Arabicfirzil iron

This root *barz is the origin of Latin and

English. It can be noted that Phoenician was

probably borrowed in Berber: Tachelhit

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wuzzal, etc. Apparently habalgi and *barz, *barzil cannot be connected but it must be first noted that

the suffix illu of barzillu is Luwian. Next this language has a sound change > z, so that the

unprefixed form balg, barg can be compared with barz. Luwian is the intermediary language which

changed Hatti (ha)balgi, (ha)bargi into barz and passed it on to Semitic languages and then western

mediterranean countries.

About the Glottalic Theory of Proto-Indo-European

The Proto-Indo-European language, or PIE in short, is the ancestor of most European languages,

apart from Basque, an isolate, and Finno-Baltic and Hungarian, which are Uralic. English derives

from Proto-Germanic, itself from PIE.

According to the traditional

reconstruction PIE had three types of

consonants: (1) voiceless ones like k, p, t,

(2) voiced ones like g, (b), d, and (3) voiced

aspirate ones like gh, bh, dh. The voiced

labial *b was extremely rare. It has long

been noted that this system of stops is

impossible and does not fulfil the

requirements of typology and theoretical

phonology. For that matter phonologistshave proposed to reinterpret the

traditional features in a new framework

called the Glottalic Theory: (1) voiceless

stops remain the same: k, p, t, (2) voiced

stops are relabeled glottalized: like g < k,

(b < p), d < t, (3) voiced aspirate stops are

just voiced:g, b, d. Aspiration is irrelevant in the Glottalic framework.

Most Indo-Europeanists do not adhere to the Glottalic Theory, but in the past days we have

examined several loanwords that were adjusted in Indo-European languages with aspirates instead

of voiced phonemes when they should not if so-called voiced phonemes were really voiced. (1)

*ib elephant > Latin ebur, Sanskrit ibha, (2) Berber *bid monkey > Greek pithekos, (3) Luwian *barz

iron > Latin ferrum, Englis brass, (4) Sumerian gude lute > Greek kithara, (5) Hurro-Urartean dabiri

blacksmith > Latinfaber.

These numerous examples show that the so-called voiced phonemes cannot have been voiced

originally and that the so-called aspirates were indeed voiced.

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About the Egyptian symbol of life

On this Egyptian wall painting the king Tut receives

from Hathor. The jackal-head god Anubis also

holds a in his right hand. He was the measurer

of souls: light souls with no guilt are saved, heavy

souls are doomed. -The conventional reading

is made up of consonants only [ n x]: a voiced

pharyngeal, a nasal and a voiceless velar fricative. This word is attested in Coptic as anato breathe

with palatalized velar fricatives as is usual in Coptic. Ana translates Greek . This

Egyptian word is an obvious cognate of PIE *HaenH1- to breathe, to blow, from which Latin anima

and Greek are derived.

It can be noted that the laryngeal H1 is [x] a voiceless velar fricative.

As regards the symbol itself it must be underlined that it has nothing to do with souls, gods

or life. Its origin is very modest and derives

from another homophonous root to bind.

The symbol is the drawing of a sandal shoe

strapping. In the meaning to bind the root

[ n x] is cognate with PIE *s-neH1- to bind,sew, with s-mobile as in the English word

needle < *neH1-tl-.

Here again the laryngeal H1 is [x] a voiceless velar fricative.

About the word panther

The Latin word panthera is itself a loanword of Greek panther, related to or

leopard and the later form . These forms are related to Sanskrit pdku panther,

lion (also snake), from a possible common source

*pd. It is intriguing to see that the dental suffix d

appears only in Greek and Indo-Iranian. This form

with a syllabic * can hardly be borrowed. This

word may have a bearing on the original location

of PIE as a relique word. See red (past) and green

(present) areas.

This root has clear counterparts in Hatti p(a)ra-

panther (Soysal 2004:299) and Russian bars

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panther, with a different suffix. With a velar suffix one finds

Sumerian pirig lion and Chechen berg leopard. Further

comparanda include Dravidian words: Kolami (Setumadhava

Rao) perpul, Ollari Gadba berpul, Salur Gadba pullu (pl. pulkul),

berbull (pl. berbulkul) tiger, where pul means tiger and per

means big.

About Caucasic Tur goatsAn interesting Indo-European word for goats with a limited

distribution is *dig-: Old English ticcen kid, German Ziege, Albanese dhi, Greek dza she-goat.

The tendency to be applied to the adult female, as is the case with *H2wis sheep > English ewe,

would indicate that this word has some antiquity but it is lacking in several peripheral branches:

Celtic, Italic, Tocharian and Anatolian, which is a problem. In addition its structure *dig- is

abnormal, as PIE roots normally

do not have two voiced

phonemes. The attempt to

transform *dig- into a regular

*dik- in Mallory-Adams (2006:

141) cannot be accepted. This

latter form with a voiceless velarstop does not account for Greek

and Germanic.

This abnormal root *dig- is of

Caucasic origin: Proto-Tsezian *tiqw one-year-old kid: Ginukh teqi, Khvarshi tiqa, Inkhokvari

tqo, Bezhta tq, Gunzib toq-i. Besides Proto-Tsezian has *tika, *tiga he-goat: Tsezi teka,

Ginukh teka, Khvarshi teka, Inkhokvari tka, Bezhta tiga, Gunzib tiga.

Incidentally it can be noted that the Caucasic borrowing *tiqw > pseudo-PIE root *dig- supports theglottalic theory of PIE, as the ejectives of Caucasic have been adapted as voiced phonemes.

About colts and onagersAn interesting word when it comes to determining the homeland of the Proto-Indo-European

language is the English word coltyoung of horse. In general no PIE word for colt is reconstructed

because of the phonetic incoherence of lexical data:

- Germanic: English colta one-to-four-year-old foal, Old Norse kultfoal, young man,

- Indo-Iranian: Farsi kurre foal, Indo-Aryan kiora foal (< *kik'eul-),

- Hittite kurka foal, with Iranian phonetics.

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These incoherent words have an Altaic origin as shown by the

following potential cognates:

- Turkic *qulun, *qulum foal,

- Mongolian *qulan onager Equus hemionus,- Old Japanese kwoma colt < (?) *kul-ma,

- Chinese gu colt, poney < *k_loH with unknown first

vowel.

The absence of this word *kul- in Pokorny (1959) or Mallory-

Adams (2006) is logical: the correspondence of Germanic k ~

Iranian k ~ Indo-Aryanmakes little sense. It should be: h ~s ~

. This word is a wanderwort of Altaic origin. It can be added

that Caucasic also seems to have received this wanderwort:

Tsezi, Ginukh gulu horse; Chechen, Ingush gowr horse. To

these words can also be added Farsi gurand Hindi khuronager, wild ass.

The area where wild onagers are attested certainly cannot be the homeland of PIE as the name of

the onager *qul was incoherently borrowed at least twice: for colts, and then for onagers properly.

An Anatolian word for tin, lead

Anatolia was once leader in metal-working and metal-casting. There is an interesting set of similar

words: Sumerian nagga from which Armenian anag tin, lead is certainly derived. It can be noted

that Sanskrit also has this word as nga with a long vowel.

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Diakonov once proposed that this word may

originate from India. But it appears that this

word is most probably of Hurro-Urartean

origin: the root is nahh- to melt, cast (metal)

hence nah-ka (molten) metal, originally tin,

lead. The voiced consonant of Armenian and

Sanskrit suggests that this word was

transmitted through Sumerian. It can be noted

that Sanskrit has a long vowel where Hurro-

Urartean has a velar fricative. The coincidence is perfect phonetically.

Ultimately the Hurro-Urartean root nahh- to melt, cast (metal) is a cognate of PIE *leH- to flow (as

of some thick substance like mud).

An Anatolian word for gold

In general the Sanskrit word for gold hira(y)a is derived from

PIE *hel- yellow, gold. This word is phonetically similar to

Sanskrit hari gold < *hel-. There is nevertheless a problem with

the vowel i ofhira(y)a.

As the Sanskrit word for tin, lead nga is itself of Hurro-

Urartean origin (< nahh- to flow, melt), another possibility is to

derive hira(y)a gold from Hurrian hiyari *[hijri] gold, hence a

stem *hir-, *hr-. This is very possibly another Sanskrit word of

Anatolian origin.

More on the word panther *prd-

As noted before, the Indo-European word for panther is peculiar for having a syllabic r in the root

*prd, as shown by Sanskritprdaku and Greek alternation inpardalis,pordalis. In addition the syllabicrwas stressed.

This feature occurs in a number of other Indo-European words: *wlkwos

wolf, H2rtkos bear, *wlp- fox and *glH1is dormouse. The word for

panther is therefore integrated in a paradigm of names of wild animals,

which share the unusual feature of having a stressed syllabic l or r.

Even though this root *prd is not widespread among Indo-European

languages, there is some internal linguistic reason to think that it must

be inherited. A connection with PIE *per(k) speckled is plausible.

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In addition it is interesting to note that Greek parthenos virgin is phonetically similar to pardalis,

pordalis panther. This coincidence probably sheds some light on the association of goddesses of

fertility and panthers in Anatolia.

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