Vasco-Caucasian - an ancient language macro-family

French corme 'service berry' (updated)

2012-02-17T12:42:00.000+01:00

According to the Wikipedia article "List of French words of Gaulish origin", French corme 'service berry'¹ is a loanword from Gaulish curmi 'beer'. However, this is surely a case of homonymy, because 'berry' and 'beer' are semantically unrelated².

Interestingly enough, we've got cognates in dialectal (High Navarrese) Basque gurbi (HN) 'service tree' and gurbe 'wild apple (Malus sylvestris)'. These words are strinkingly similar to gurbitz 'strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)', found in Western dialects and cognate to Italian corbezzolo'strawberry tree', and for which I propose a Vasco-Caucasian etymology from NEC *kkurmæɕV / *kkurmæʒV 'a k.of fruit'³.

So it looks like this root either was originally a compound (fossilized in NEC) or it was semantically reanalized as such, leading to a shorter form. I also think that in a different VC substrate language the initial velar stop underwent an assibilation (satemization), leading to Latin sorbum 'service berry'⁴, sorbus 'service tree'⁵ and Romance *serba 'service berry', found in Catalan serva, Occitan sèrba and Spanish serba⁶.
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¹ The collective form is cormier 'service tree (Sorbus domestica)'.

² Interestingly enough, the same article quotes Friulian cirmul and (with metathesis) Italian cembro 'Swiss pine (Pinus cembra)' as cognates of the French word. However, for them I propose a different etymology from PSC *xq’wémV 'nut; kernel', a root reflected in Greek kônos 'cone (fruit of a conifer)'.
³ Probably also the source of Balto-Slavic *kermus-/*k´ermus- '(bird-)cherry' and (with metathesis) Greek kómaros 'strawberry tree', a word found in Dioscorides.

⁴Spanish sorbo, French sorbe'service berry', sorbier (collective form) 'service tree'.

⁵There is also arbutus 'strawberry tree', with loss of the initial sibilant.

⁶The collective form is serbal 'service tree'. There are also the forms serbo, jerbo, product of a contamination with sorbo.

Pedirle peras al olmo

2012-02-16T16:34:00.001+01:00

The Spanish saying "pedirle peras al olmo" (lit. 'to ask the elm for pears') means 'to ask for something impossible', as elms don't give edible fruits. However, paradoxically it might enclose a deep wisdom regarding the origin of the word 'elm' found in several IE languages: Latin ulmus,Celtic *limo-, Germanic *elma-/*alma-, Slavic *jьlьmъ, from which Indo-Europeanists reconstruct a PIE root *h1elem-.

As in the case of other plant names, the sparse distribution as well as some phonetic irregularities point to a loanword, I guess from NEC *dʒɦuɫVmV, a metathesized form of *dʒɦumV-ɫV, a derivative of *dʒɦumV 'bush, grass; a k. of fruit', with loss of the initial affricate (apparently regular in loanwords). IMHO this Vasco-Caucasian root would be the origen of Portuguese silva'bramble (Rubus ulmifolius)'¹ < *silba, too often confused with his homonymous Latin silva 'wood, forest'.

The bare stem is found in Uralic *δ´e̮me (*δ´ōme)'birdcherry' and Insular Celtic *subi- 'strawberry'. The latter corresponds to Eastern Basque zi (S, Z), zĩ(R) 'oak acorn' < Paleo-Basque *sini, with a semantic shift reflectingan adaptation to the Mediterranean climate.

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¹ There is also the collective form silveira.

The real "Nostratic" language (updated)

2012-02-16T15:22:00.000+01:00

IE *h1ek´w-o- 'horse'¹ has been the object of endless debates among specialists² about its relevance for dating PIE (the proto-language of the IE family). Unfortunately for the defenders of the Kurgan or Mallory-Gimbutas' theory of the IE homeland³, what linguistic evidence tell us is this can't be a native PIE word⁴ but rather a Wanderwort of ultimate Caucasian origin from PNC *ɦɨ[n]tʃwi (^~ -e) 'horse', reflecting the domestication of the animal in the Pontic-Caspian steppes⁵ around 4,000-3,500 BC.

As in the case of other domesticated animals, the meaning 'horse' is relatively recent in terms of human prehistory resulting from the specialization of a root with a wider semantics ('ungulate animal of the steppes') which also covered 'boar' and 'deer', pointing to an Upper Palaeolithic scenario where these animals were abundant and hunted for meat.

IMHO this root is reflected in Kartvelian *eʃw 'boar, pig'⁶ and Afrasian *ʕi(n)ʒ- 'sheep, goat', *xu(n)ʒ(-ir-) 'pig' (Semitic, Chadic)'⁷. I regard these forms as evidence of a Vasco-Caucasian Mesolithic language spoken in the Taurus-Zagros mountains, the area where sheep, goat, pig and cattle (the animals which made up the Near East Neolithic package) were first domesticated around 9,000-8,000 BC.

This is precisely where the Nostraticist Allan Bomhard⁸ thinks Proto-Nostratic was spoken (although IMHO the hypothesis of this being the ancestor of language families such as Indo-European, Afrasian, Kartvelian, etc. is flawed), a language which John C. Krens regarded as being part of Dene-Caucasian phylum⁹:

I believe that Nostratic languages did not exist except as a part of Dene-Caucasian until the waning of the Würm glaciation, some 15,000 years ago.

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¹ Please notice the segment k´w isn't a labiovelar.

² Some Indo-Europeanists have suggested a connection with the adjective *ōk´-u- 'quick, fast'. See for example The Indo-Aryan controversy: evidence and inference in Indian history, p. 264-265.³ See J.P. Mallory (1989): In Search of the Indo-Europeans. Language, Archaeology and Myth, p. 143-185.
⁴ In account of its strange phonetics, Greek híppos 'horse' is most assuredly a loanword from another IE language.

⁵ The wild horse of the Eurasian steppes (Equus ferus ferus), also called tarpan (a Turkic word), belongs to a different subspecies than the domesticated horse (Equus ferus caballus). There is in addition another horse subspecies native to the Pontic-Caspian steppes, the so-called Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus Prezewalski's).
⁶ Directly attested only in Georgian. The Mengrelian form is o-sk-u 'pigsty' < *o-askwu.

⁷ The Afrasian forms underwent further differentation, possibly involving some kind of phonosymbolic process.
⁸Allan Bomhard (2008): Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic. Comparative Phonology, Morphology, and Vocabulary, vol. I, p. 235-241.
⁹ Allan Bomhard & John C. Krens (1994): The Nostratic Macrofamily: A Study in Distant Linguistic Relationship, p. 153.

Basque begi 'eye'

2012-02-13T23:39:00.002+01:00

Although Starostin didn't include Basque in his own research, IMHO the word begi 'eye' comes from the Vasco-Caucasian root *wemq’V́ (^~ -xq’) 'eye; witness', reconstructed from NEC *wimq’V 'witness; true' and Sino-Tibetan *mjVk 'eye'.

Bengtson regards this as an Eastern word as opposed to NEC *ʡwĭlʡi 'eye', which he wrongly links to the Basque word.

Medieval Latin *dēvetum

2012-01-30T17:02:00.026+01:00

Italian divieto 'prohibition', Old Spanish deviedo 'reserve (of land); prohibition, ecclesiastic censorship' and Basque debetü (Z) 'illicit', debeku (G, HN, Bazt, L, LN) 'prohibition'¹derive from Medieval Latin *dēvetum 'obstacle, prohibition'², the participle of the verb dēvetāre 'to forbid, to impede' (non attested in Classical Latin), usually regarded as a compound from the prefix *dē- 'from, away' and vetāre 'to forbid'³.

The Latin verb has cognates in Celtic: Middle Welsh gwadu 'to deny', Old Breton guad 'denial' < *woto-. Matasović links this to a Celtic verb *wet- 'to speak': Old Welsh guetid, Middle Welsh dyweddy 'speaks'. From these forms and Hittite uttar 'word', Indo-Europeanists reconstruct an IE root *wet(h2)- 'to say, to forbid' similar to *wed- 'to raise's one voice', found in Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Tocharian, Greek and Indic.

However, to explain the meaning 'to impede' seen in Romance I'd prefer to posit a folk etymology from a similar sounding word to Latin vetāre. A good possibility is the Celtic verb *dī-wed-o- 'to stop' (Middle Welsh dywedd(u)), a compound from *dī- 'from, away' and *wed-o- 'to lead, to bring together', from an IE root *wedh- 'to lead, to go' also reflected (with phonetical irregularities) in Latin vādere 'to go' and vadum 'ford'.

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¹ The corresponding verb form is debetatü (Z), debekatu (G, HN, Bazt, L, LN), debekau (B), bedekatu (B), bedekau (B) 'to forbid'. Rohlfs proposed a different etymology from *impedicāre 'to impede', which I consider semantically inadequate.
² The meaning 'obstacle' is reflected in the Basque compound gernu-debeku (Bazt, L) 'urine retention', whose first member is gernu 'urine'.

³ Reflected in Spanish vedar 'to forbid, to impede', whose participle vedado 'reserve (of land)' has replaced deviedo in the modern language. In Romance, this meaning is usually represented by dēfēnsa- (e.g. Catalan devesa, Spanish dehesa 'meadow, pasture (usually fenced)'), the feminine participle of dēfendere 'to move away; to reject', which in some languages (e.g. French défendre) also developped the meaning 'to forbid'.

Latin silva 'forest, wood' (updated)

2011-11-23T15:30:00.001+01:00

In despite of the attempts of some Indo-Europeanists'¹ , Latin silva 'forest, wood' have no PIE etymology. However, a link to Greek húlē 'forest, wood; firewood, timber; scrub' is very likely², possibly by intermediation of Etruscan.

The Greek word, without PIE etymology, is IMHO a substrate loanword from the Eurasiatic root *[z]ilwV 'wood' (Starostin), reflected in Altaic *sjulu (˜ *z-, -l´-) 'conifer, pine tree'.
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¹ For example, a proposed link to IE *swel- ~ *sel- 'plank, board' or *k´sul-o- 'log' > Greek ksúlos 'wood'.
² See Ernout-Meillet (1958): Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine, p. 626.

Latin vitrum 'glass; woad'

2011-11-16T16:36:00.001+01:00

Latin vitrum 'glass; woad (Isatis tinctoria)' designates a plant whose leaves are used to produce blue dye. The association between both meanings is readily explained because in Antiquity glass was blueish or greenish rather than transparent.

In despite of the attempts of some Indo-Europeanists¹, the Latin word has no inherited PIE etymology, that is, it must be a loanword from some unidentified language. But Germanic *waizda- and Greek isátis 'woad' suggest we are dealing with a Wanderwort *wei-t-s- related to Latin vitrum < *wei-t-r-.

These forms have Baltic paralels from the regional IE (Greek, Baltic) root *g^whai- 'bright': Lithuanian gaidrà, giedrà, g´iedra 'cloudless sky, serene, beautiful weather, drought', giẽdra, gaidrù- 'bright, serene (of weather)'; gãisàs 'glow, redness in the sky', Latvian gàiss 'air, atmosphere, cloud', gàišs 'bright, bright, clear', dzidrs 'clear, bright', dzīdrs 'azure blue, bright, clear '; dzìedrs ^'azure'.

I think *gWhai- is a loanword from PNEC *?VqqWo-ji- 'white, light, blueish' < *=eqqwA 'yellow', an etymology which would also explain IE *k´wei- 'shining, white'. I must assume the initial labiovelar cluster was reduced to *w in the source language, which I guess it was Thracian², yielding the forms *wai-t-s-, *wi-t-r- corresponding to Baltic *gai-d-s-, *gi-d-r-.
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¹ For example, De Vaan (Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages), following Szemerényi, proposes an adjective *wed-ro- 'water-like' derivated from *wed- 'water', although this root (in full grade) isn't attested in Latin.
² In fact, glass-manufactured objects such as rythons (drinking horns) were found in Thracian tombs.

Latin lolium 'ryegrass'

2011-11-16T11:55:00.001+01:00

Latin lolium 'ryegrass'¹ designates several species of grasses and weeds, among which Lolium tremulentum or darnel is poisonous². Although standard dictionaries (e.g. Ernout-Meillet's, De Vaan's) consider this word to be of unknown etymology, I think it's actually a reflex of IE *derH2u- 'a k. of wild cereal', although from a different lexicon layer than the one usually regarded to be inherited.

This root designates the same plant in Celtic: Celtic *dra(:)wā 'ryegrass' is found in dialectal French droue, druive 'ryegrass' as well as other similar forms even in Gallo-Italic (e.g. Lombard droga). Brythonic languages reflect the form *drāwā-kā: 'darnel' (Welsh drewg, Breton draok, dreok). Latin dravoca 'darnel' is surely a Gaulish loanword continuated in Gallo-Romance *dravocāta > French dragée 'forage' (not to be confused with its homonymous 'bonbon' or 'tablet').

The Germanic cognate *tarwō is represented by Middle Dutch tarwe, terwe 'wheat' and English tare 'weed; vetch'³. This semantic shift, comparable to the one seen in other IE branches (i.e. Greek dáratos, Macedonian drámis 'bread', Baltic *dirwā 'field', Slavic *derevna 'arable field, village'), means that IE speakers in those areas encountered an established farming economy and so adapted their word to the new cultural context, a process called acculturation.

The IE word has cognates in Altaic: Turkic *dạrɨ-g ‘millet’, Mongolian *darki ‘brushwood’, Tungus-Manchu *daragan ‘quitch; reed, cane’, Korean *tār ‘reed’, pointing to the initial consonant being a glottalized *t’. On the basis of these data, I consider it to be part of the native core of PIE dating back to the Mesolithic⁴.

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¹ There's also a Vulgar Latin form *jolium attested in Romance.

² The French word is ivraie, from Latin ēbriaca (f.) 'intoxicated'. There's also the dialectal Basque (Roncalese) form libraka, with a proclitic definite article.
³ Also used in the Bible to name a type of ryegrass, probably darnel.
⁴ This is the chronology we should expect from the existence of a common lexicon relative to Boreal fauna and flora combined with the lack of words relative to agriculture or metallurgy. IMHO, standard datings ranging from Late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age, mostly based on cultural innovations like horse riding and wheeled vehicles, are flawed.

Tin and gold

2011-10-26T13:09:00.000+02:00

Etruscan zam(a)thi 'gold' is an interesting word probably linked to Greek ksanthós, ksouthós 'yellow', without PIE etymology'¹.

However, the Greek forms point to a palatalized velar like the ones found in IE satem languages. Thus I'd reconstruct a Tyrrhenian root *g´am- 'gold' cognate to Sino-Tibetan *gǝm andBurushaski *ɣén-. To these, Starostin also adjoints Yeniseian *ʔVmV (˜ x-) 'tin, pewter'.

IMHO this would be a Dene-Caucasian root cognate to Austro-Asiatic *jVŋ 'gold' and which spread as a Wanderwort into Dravidian *tsin- 'gold' and Germanic *tinan 'tin'.

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¹ See for example Pierre Chantraine (1977): Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grècque, p. 763.

Etruscan netś-, nethś- 'entrails'

2011-10-25T15:12:00.009+02:00

From two bilingual inscriptions we know Etruscan netśvis, netśrac are respectively equivalent to Latin haruspex 'adivinator'¹and haruspīcina 'adivination'. This leaves us with an Etruscan word *netś-, *nethś- 'entrails', surely a loanword from Greek nēdús 'stomach, belly, womb'.

The etymology of the Greek word is itself problematic. I think this could be a Thracian loanword parallel to Lithuanian vidùs 'middle, interior' < IE *(d)ui-dhH1-u-, a compound from *(d)ui- '2' and *dheH1- 'to make, to put' whose Celtic and Germanic reflexes mean 'wood, forest, tree'². This is also the origin of Latin dīvidō 'to divide' < *dis-widhH1-.

Etruscan visc- 'center', attested in visc ame ren-s '(this) is the center of the hand', could be explained from an derivated form *(d)ui-dhH1-sk-. This word was in turn borrowed into Latin vīscus, vīsceris 'entrails.

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¹ Itself a compound from IE *g´hor- 'guts' and *(s)pek´- 'to look'.
² This would imply forests were considered as a hinterland, an intermediate region between inhabited settlements. Interestingly, the Baltic reflexes of IE *medh-jo- 'middle' mean 'wood, forest, tree'.

Is really Tartessian a Celtic language? (updated version)

2011-10-17T15:00:00.000+02:00

When Koch's first book appeared in 2009, I was enthusiastic with his interpretation of Tartessian as a Celtic language. But after reading it several times my former sensations have cooled dramatically.

One of the problems is that the SW script hasn't been fully deciphered and the exact value of some signs is still unknown or problematic. For example, the sign to which Koch assigns the value H^a¹ should be actually b^aif we accept the equivalence between Tartessian b^aait^uura and Iberian baituŕa².

From this correspondence, we can see also Tartessian /r/ corresponds to Iberian /ŕ/, so it probably represents a trill. But as suggested elsewhere, Tartessian /ŕ/ must represent a different rhotic, possibly arising from rhotacism of *z as in Latin and NW Germanic. Thus the Tartessian verb naŕk^ee- found in funerary inscriptions would correspond to PIE *mezg- 'to bind, to knot' (e.g. English mesh), unattested in Celtic.

This would indicate Tartessian is a non-Celtic IE language but with Celtic loanwords like the formulaic expression lok^oob^oo niirab^oo /lugu-bo nera-bo³/ 'to the Lords Lug', with a dative plural ending -bo as in Western Hispano-Celtic⁴ but unlike Celtiberian, which has -bos instead.

On the other hand, the toponym element ipo(n) is very frequent in SW Iberia (e.g. Olis-ip(p)o, modern Lisboa) and has been identified by some authors with Hippo (e.g. Hippo Regia), a latinized version of Phoenician ubbo 'habour'. However, IMHO this is highly unlikely⁵. I would link it instead to the Gaulish toponym element -bona, itself of Vasco-Caucasian origin (PNC *GGwinʡV (~ -ħ-,-ʕ-) 'village; house'), with a prefix *i-.

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¹ Vowels are redundantly noted in the SW script, first as part of the stop sign and then by the vowel sign.

² Which would be actually baiduŕa if my reading /tuŕa baiduŕa/ of the segment tuŕlbailuŕa (with two unsure lambda signs) in La Serreta I lead foil (written in the Ionian alphabet) is correct.

³Proto-Celtic *nero- 'chief, hero'.
⁴ Also called Gallaecian or Lusitano-Gallaecian, is attested in theonyms of Latin inscriptions as well as in loanwords.

⁵ See Villar (2000): Indoeuropeos y no indoeuropeos en la Hispania prerromana, pp. 86-118.

The Atlantidic substrate (updated version)

2011-10-15T14:30:00.000+02:00

The German linguist Theo Vennemann¹is the proponent of a Western Europe substrate languages he calls Atlantidic, an Afrasian language akin to Semitic and which left loanwords in Germanic, for example *krabb- 'crab' (also Greek kárabos), which he relates to Semitic *ʕa-k’rab- 'scorpion'.

However, this word is rather isolated within Afrasian, with no likely cognates except perhaps (and these by no means sure) in Chadic. But as both crabs and scorpions have large claws, IMHO this is cognate to PIE *ghreb(h)- 'to take, to seize' and possibly also to Kartvelian *k’rab-/*k’rap- (-e-) 'to gather'².

Other loanwords I've investigated myself are Celtic *gabro-, Latin caper 'he-goat', Germanic *xafra- 'buck'³ (with no plausible PIE etymology), which can be linked to Arabic ɣafr-, ɣufr- 'young of deer/goat', and also Latin aper, Germanic *ibura-, Balto-Slavic *weper- 'boar'⁴, which would correspond to Arabic ʕifr-, ʕufr- 'pig, boar; piglet'⁵.

These evidence would suggest that Atlantidic was spoken in Neolithic Europe and whose linkings with Chadic would date back to the time the Sahara had a monsoonic climate (roughly between 6,000-3,000 BC).
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¹ An Indo-Europeanist formerly defensor of the glottalic theory.
² Wrongly linked by Nostraticists to words meaning 'fruit, harvest'.
³ Greek kápros 'boar' could have arisen from contamination with the other word.
⁴ The initial labial arises from assimilation to the following *u.
⁵ Possibly a specialization from the preceding root.

Basque legar 'gravel, pebblestone'

2011-10-13T11:52:00.001+02:00

According to Bengtson, Basque legar 'gravel, pebblestone' (with the old collective suffix -arr) has a Vasco-Caucasian etymology from NEC *tɬ’anχχwV 'ruins; cobble-stone(s)'. Although their semantic and phonetic resemblance might be evident, IMHO this is a distant relationship, as the Basque word can be readily derived from PIE *legh- 'to lie'¹.

The meaning 'pebble' can be explained if the word originally referring to glaciar debris (i.e. moraines), thus suggesting an Ice Age environment and a much deeper chronology for the PIE root than the one commonly devised by Indo-Europeanists. From this and other data (see below) I consider this to be a Paleo-Eurasian root, whose Vasco-Caucasian reflexes can be found in the Paleo-European substrate loanword *kan(t)-/*gan(d)- 'pebble'² and native Basque abar (B, G) 'residue, sediment'³.

As sound correspondences are often tricky, I should explain in these words the initial lateral affricate was reflected as a velar stop, lost in Basque due to Martinet's Law. However, in Altaic this consonant was delateralized, as reflected in Mongolian *siɣar 'dreg, sediment', Tungus-Manchu *dʒaxar(a) 'gravel, pebbles' and Korean *tʃàka- 'gravel, pebbles; mother of pearl'.

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¹ In fact, there also exists Basque liga 'dregs', presumably a Gaulish loanword.

² Found in Spanish canto 'pebble' and the toponymic term gándara 'stony ground'.
³ Not to be confused with its homonymous meaning 'branches'.

Etruscan viscri 'penis'

2011-10-10T16:52:00.011+02:00

Etruscan viscri 'penis' is attested in the votive inscription (TLE 685): eti viscri ture Arnθ Alitle Pumpuś '... gives this penis', engraved on a figure of a man offering his male organ.

The Etruscan word is continued on Italian (Tuscan) bischero 'peg (on a string instrument); fool, idiot', which would suggest a link to Italic *wizg-ā > Latin virga 'twig, rod'¹, from a root *wis-g- also attested in Germanic.

Although many specialists have linked the Etruscan word to Latin vīscus, vīsceris 'entrails', itself a word of problematic etymology, IMHO this actually corresponds to Etruscan visc 'center' (see here).
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¹ For that matter, Spanish verga is also used for 'penis'.

Celtic *talu- 'front, forehead'

2011-10-07T10:52:00.006+02:00

Celtic *talu- 'front, forehead' is the origin (through Gaulish) of Late Latin *talūtium 'slope', which gave French talus, Spanish talud. There's also Provençal talvera 'edge of a field'.

This word has no PIE etymology, in despite some attempts to link it to *telH- 'earth, ground' > Celtic *talamon-. But IMHO it has a Vasco-Caucasian etymology from NEC *tt’ɬ’welu (~ ddɮ-, -r-) 'rock, cliff', Burushaski *tali 'slope (of a mountain)'.

In a metathesized form, this root could also explain Latin latus 'side, flank' (probably borrowed from Etruscan), a word which has puzzled many Indo-Europeanists, as its only IE cognate is Old Irish leth 'side'.

Germanic *sajwi- 'sea, lake'

2011-10-06T19:30:00.033+02:00

Germanic *sajwi- 'sea, lake' is a word with no PIE etymology¹, although a relationship with Kartvelian *zoɣw- 'sea' seems likely. IMHO they could be related to NEC *ts’s’æ:k’wV 'sour, raw', reflecting the fact the sea is a mass of salty water.

By contrast, Starostin links these 'sea' words to Altaic *sjògu 'shallow (place)'². This is probably also the origin of Germanic *sinkw-an- 'to sink', a word with no PIE etymology³ and which suggests a Mesolithic environment like Doggerland, a former landmass in the North Sea which in the last Ice Age bridged Great Britain to the continent.

Although Doggerland gradually sunk by rapid post-glacial raising sea levels, actually becoming an island of much more reduced extension, according to recent research its actual disappearence seems to have been caused by a catastrophic event around 6200 BC, the Storegga Slide, a submarine landslide in the Norwegian Sea which triggered a huge tsunami.

Some authors have suggested the echos of this prehistoric catastrophe are the origin to the legend of Atlantis, but according to Plato's description IMHO this would mean the Pillars of Hercules were located at the Strait of Dover rather than at the Strait of Gibraltar³.
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¹ Nikolayev links it to Baltic *sī̂w-a-, *sīw-iā̃ 'juice'.
² But IMHOMongolian *siɣar 'dreg, sediment' doesn't belong here.
³ Worse yet, Greenberg links the Altaic word to IE *seik- 'dry' (Latin siccus).
⁴ In case of doubt, the British Empire holds one of the pillars at both places.

PIE *dom- 'household'

2011-09-22T23:30:00.020+02:00

PIE *dom- 'household' (e.g. Latin domus) is a noun-root whose genitive form *dem-s- is attested in the compound *dem-s-pot- 'master of the house' (e.g. Greek despótēs). Many Indo-Europeanists (e.g. Mallory-Adams) consider it to be derivated from *dem(h2)- 'to build', a root only attested in Greek (e.g. démō 'to build', dómos, dõ:ma 'house') and Germanic (e.g. English timber).

A part of the problem is that, unlike French, English doesn't make a clear distinction between the concepts of 'house' as a building (French maison) and 'household' as a dwelling place (French demeure). This explains why the French linguists Émile Beneviste¹ and Pierre Chantraine² think that PIE *dom- refers to the latter rather than the former.

IMHO, this suggests the original meaning was 'to remain, to live', thus linking it with Proto-Afrasian *dam- 'to live, to last, to sit', which AFAIK has no Eurasiatic correspondences.

In terms of linguistic archaeology, this points to the Neolithic, when (pre-)IE-speaking hunterer-gatherers learned farming techniques and thus became sedentary. By contrast, Afrasian speakers (mostly nomadic pastoralists) had a different lifestyle and didn't develop the household institution.
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¹ Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européenes, vol. I, pp. 293-307.
² Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, pp. 292-293.

Latin fulcrum 'prop, support'

2011-09-19T12:52:00.006+02:00

Latin fulcrum 'prop, support', from the verb fulciō 'to support', is cognate to Greek phálkēs 'rib (of a ship)', phálanks 'beam', Old High German balko 'beam' and Lithuanian balžiena 'crossbar'. From these data, Indo-Europeanists such as Porkorny reconstruct a PIE root *bhel- with various velar suffixes: *bhºl-Hk´-, *bhºl-Hg´-, *bhºl-H-n-g´-, *bhel-g´-, *bhel-g´h-¹.

The bare stem can also be found in Proto-Altaic *p^hárà(n) 'cross-beam, constructing place', a root to which I'd link *warandā (with a lenition *p^h > *φ > *w), a Wanderwort found in West Romance (Portuguese varanda, Spanish baranda 'fence around a staircase, terrace, balcony'), Indic varáṉḏah 'partition wall' (hence Anglo-English verandah) and Baltic (Lithuanian varanda 'wickerwork'). Also related are West Romance *parra(n) 'fence, enclosure; frame' (Spanish parra 'grapevine', parrilla 'grill') and West Germanic *parrik- 'fence' (German Pferch, French parc > English park).

As a Wanderwort, this root also reached Proto-NEC, where we find *bVrk'wV 'enclosure; frame, staircase', a root from which derives Latin pergula 'porch' (with a suffix parallel to the Andian one).

The use of wooden beams in construction can be illustrated in the Neolithic huts like the ones of Cucuteni-Trypillian culture (see the above photo), which had a prop to hold up the roof.
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¹ Although these phonetic irregularities have no explanation in the mainstream theory, IMHO they could be reflexes of an Eurasiatic glottalic stop *k’/*q’.

Latin pariēs 'wall'

2011-09-18T22:43:00.028+02:00

Although some Indo-Europanists link it to Proto-Germanic *spar(r)e:n, *sparrio:n 'stake, beam', Latin pariēs 'wall' has no inherited PIE etymology. But IMHO it can be considered as a substrate loanword from PIE *Hwer- 'to close, to cover' (usually with various suffixes), a root from which I'd also derive Romance barra 'bar, barrier' and *berruculu- (Spanish berrojo, Gascon berrolh) 'a wooden or iron bar or bolt placed across gates on the inside'¹.

This would be a PIE B root corresponding to Proto-Altaic *t`jù:ru 'to hold, to obstruct' and PIE A *twerH- 'to keep, to hold, to fence', found in Balto-Slavic and also the source of Latin obtūrō 'to block, to stop up' and Romance *at-tūrō 'to stop'.
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¹ Which Coromines thinks it was an alteration (possibly by contamination with ferrum 'iron') of Latin verūculum, diminutive form of verūs 'roasting spit' < PIE *g^wer(H)-u-.

Beware the troll!

2011-09-13T14:51:00.012+02:00

Arnaud Fournet, a Frenchman who lives near Paris and uses the aliases yangg and afyangh, is a dangerous **troll** as well as a crackpot linguist. His favourite pastime is insulting and defamating other people like myself in an ad hoc blog as well as in the Yahoo! groups IndiaArchaeology, cybalist and Nostratic-L¹, his most used adjective being "incompetent"².

The reason why he hates me so much is he's a strong opponent of the Vasco-Caucasian hypothesis. At the same time he's obsessed with his own "Out-of-Anatolia" theory which makes PIE a near relative of Asianic languages such as Hurrian³, in despite he formerly regarded IE as a branch of Afrasian (renamed as "Chamito-Semitic").

That is, shameless changes from one view to the opposite are also characteristic of him. For example, although he formerly defended Etruscan was autochtonous to Italy, he now thinks it's "an evolved variety of Hurro-Urartean" and thus it came from the East (see his blog).

As I'm a much nobler person than him, it would be also unfair not to say that some of his ideas deserve merit, for example the one which lead me to formulate what I call Fournet's Law. By contrast, he's capable of stealing other people's ideas without ever giving credit to the original authors. For example, although he formerly linked Basque bide 'path' to PIE *pe:d- 'foot', he changed his mind after I pointed to him PIE *pent- 'to find (one's way)' was more suitable. Of course, my name was never mentioned on his writings.

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¹ After being expelled from the last two, he has recently regained membership of Nostratic-L, in despite of having insulting the owner (including a "WANTED" poster with his photo).
² A search for this word on these groups gave respectively 20, 27 and 36 results.
³ He coauthored a paper on the subject with his former friend Allan Bomhard, who has now retracted form it. He also made a "decipherment" of the Phaistos Disk assuming the language was a form of Hurrian.

Initial labials in Basque

2011-07-25T01:24:00.010+02:00

Unlike what we've seen in last post, the native result of Latin and Romance f- in Basque is /p/, lenied to /b/ in the standard variety at word-initial:

Latin fāgu- 'beech' > romance *fago > Basque pago, bago id. (but also fago)

Latin fīcu- 'fig' > Romance *fīco > Basque p(h)iko, biku id. (but also fiko, fiku)

Germanic *fīlō 'file' > Spanish filosa 'sword, knife' > Basque piruxe 'scissors'
Latin fīlu- 'thread' > Basque p(h)iru, biru id. (but also firu)
Latin fōnte- 'source, spring' > Basque ponte, ponde 'baptismal font'

Latin fōrma- 'mould' > Basque borma 'wall'

Latin fortia- 'strength' > Romance *fortsa > Basque bortxa 'force, violence'
Latin fortis 'strong' > Basque portitz, bortitz 'hard, strong'
Romance *freca 'stroke' > Basque p(h)ereka id. (but also fereka)

Latin fronte- 'forehead' > Basque boronde, boronte id.
Latin furca- 'pitchfork' > Basque urka 'pitchfork, gallows'

Also *w from Latin v- (and in some cases also b-) became /p/:

Latin bēstia- 'animal' > Basque piztia, pisti(a) 'beast, pest'
Latin brāca- 'trousers' > Basque prakak (plural) 'trousers' (but also frakak)
Latin gaudiu- 'joy' > Romance *got^s [wot^s]¹ > Basque poz, bo(t)z 'joy, happiness'
Latin vēsīca- 'urine bladder; blister' > Basque pu(t)xika 'urine bladder'
Latin viride- 'green' > Romance verde> Basque p(h)erde, berde id. (but also ferde)
Latin voluntāte- 'will, desire' > Basque borondate, boront(h)ate id.
Latin vulture- > Romance *wutre² > Basque putre id. (but also futre)

By contrast, a minoritary set of words has a nasal /m/ instead:

Celtic *bakko- 'hook, (curved) stick' > Basque mako 'hook; pitchfork, prong; walking-stick, shepherd's staff', mak(h)ila, mak(h)illa 'stick' (diminutive)
Romance barca 'boat' > Basque marka id.
Late Latin persica- 'peach' > Basque mertxika 'apricot, peach'
Latin pīca- 'magpie' > Basque mika id.
Latin portu- '(mountain) pass' > Basque mortu, maurtu 'desert' (but also portu)
Latin vāgīna- 'sheath' > Basque magina, magiña 'sheath, pod'
Latin vascellu- 'little glass' > Basque maskelu, maskillo 'little cauldron'

Even more oddly, in some dialectal words the initial labial becomes a dental /d/ (/l/ in the standard variety):

Romance banca 'small bench' > Basque lanka, lanke id.
Romance *pendiolu- 'hanging'³ > Basque dindullu 'earrings'
Latin verberāre 'to whip, to hit, to beat' > Basque dirdira 'sunshine reflection'
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¹ Spanish gozo < *got^so.
² Asturian utre &lt.
³ Catalan penjoll.

Initial pl-,fl- in Basque

2011-07-20T14:14:00.050+02:00

As it's well known, Basque abhors "muta cum liquida" clusters and thus we've got boronde, boronte < Latin fronte- and p(h)ereka, fereka 'stroke' from Romance *freca < Latin fricāre 'to rub'.

There's however a number of words where Latin pl-, fl- have given Basque l-:

Latin plācet 'it pleases' > Basque laket 'pleasure'

Latin plānu- 'flat' > Basque lau(n), leu(n), legun 'flat, smooth'
Latin plūma- 'feather' > Basque luma id.

Latin flamma- 'flame, fire' > Basque lama 'flame, heat'
Latin flore- 'flower' > Basque lore id.

The evolution fl- > l-¹ can also be found in Spanish words such as lacio < *flaccidu- 'flacid' and the personal name Laín < Flavinus. IMHO this could be explained if these labials were realized as a voiceless bilabial fricative [φ] like in Proto-Celtic², where IE *pl- became *φl- and later l- in Celtic languages. Of course, we should expect the same evolution in genuine Celtic loanwords in Basque³:

Celtic *φlāro- 'floor' > Basque larre 'meadow'

Celtic *φletro- 'hide, leather' > Basque larru, narru 'skin'

IMHO, the realization of /f/ as [φ] (which in fact is the usual pronounciation in most of Northern Spain (also including Basque-speaking areas) would explain the aspiration of Latin f- as h- in Gascon and Spanish⁴.

In Basque, this consonant disappears at word-initial, mostly before back vowels, where also /p/was realized as [φ]:

Romance *fīco 'fig' [φiko] > Basque iko id.

Latin fīlu- 'thread' [φilu] > Basque iru id.
Romance *fondo 'bottom' [φondo] > Basque ondo 'side, bottom'
Romance *fongo 'fungus' [φongo] > Basque onddo 'mushroom'
Latin fōrma- 'mould' [φorma] > Basque horma, orma 'wall'
Latin frāga- 'strawberry' [φ(a)raga] > Basque arraga, araga id.⁵
Romance pollo 'chicken' [φoλo] > Basque oilo 'hen'
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¹ However, in most words the cluster fl- became assimilated to pl-, then palatalized in Spanish and Portuguese, as in flamma- > Spanish llama, Portuguese chama.
² In Proto-Celtic, PIE *p became a voiceless bilabial fricative *φ (then lost in the daughter Celtic languages) at word-initial and intervocally, but *b in other contexts.
³ In fact, there's ample evidence of Celtic toponymy in the Westernmost part of the Basque country, suggesting the area was previously inhabited by Celtic speakers.

⁴ Unlike Gascon, Spanish never aspirates clusters fl-, fr- (see note 1). Also Castilian alone doesn't aspirate f- when followed by /w/ (resulting from diphtongation of Latin short /o/), hence fonte- > fuente. However, this doesn't happen in Cantabrian and Eastern Asturian varieties, where we find /xwénte/ instead.

⁵ In the variant arraga, [φr] evolved to a trill [rr], which then adquired a prothetic vowel. Compare Gascon ahraga.

¿A dónde me llevas?

2011-07-20T00:58:00.025+02:00

Según los diccionarios etimológicos al uso, el castellano llevar deriva del latín levāre 'levantar, alzar'¹, que ha quedado fosilizado en la expresión levar anclas. Según Coromines y Menéndez Pidal, la palatal inicial es el resultado de la evolución de las antiguas formas de presente lievo, lievas, lieva en llevo, llevas, lleva, luego generalizadas al resto de la conjugación.

Sin embargo, en castellano este verbo tiene además la acepción de 'conducir, guíar', ausente de las demás lenguas excepto el gallego-portugués. En mi opinión, esto sólo puede explicarse como una homonimia. Es decir, que el castellano llevar (gallego-portugués levar) en el sentido de 'conducir, guiar' debe provenir de una palabra distinta al latín levāre 'levantar, alzar'.

La verdad es que nunca había imaginado esta etimología hasta que topé con ella por casualidad, y se trata del nombre céltico del 'timón', reconstruído por Matasović como *φlowjo, *φlowjā > antiguo irlandés luí, luiā 'timón, cola', bretón lewier 'piloto', galés medio llyw, cónico leu 'timón'². La palabra castellana supone pues una forma *lew- como en britónico.

Atendiendo a la sugerencia de Alinei³, hay que relacionar la palabra céltica con el nombre del 'arado' en rético, glosado en latín (Plinio) como plaumoratum⁴, así como otros testimonios en retorromance y alto italiano que nos remiten a una protoforma *plou- derivada de la raíz IE *pleu- 'fluir, flotar' (griego pléō 'navegar'). A partir de una extensión *plou-g- y en una lengua no identificada, se originó también una palabra errante o "Wanderwort" para designar el 'arado' que encontramos en germánico (inglés plough, alemán Pflug), báltico (lituano plūgas) y eslavo (serbocroata, placo y ruso plug).

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¹ Al significado original se han añadido otros como 'separar, quitar' en varias lenguas románicas.

² Compárese con el latín gubernāre 'dirigir una nave' (a su vez préstamo del griego kybernáō), del cual deriva gobernar. A su vez, el diminutivo gubernāculum de gubernum 'timón' dio el catalán governall, y de ahí el castellano gobernalle 'timón'.
³ Mario Alinei (2000): Origini delle lingue d'Europa, vol. II, pp. 879-884.
⁴ Analizable como un compuesto plaumo-ratum cuyo segundo elemento estaría relacionado con 'rueda'; es decir, 'arado con ruedas'. El vocalismo /a/ de esta forma puede explicarse por un origen italoide, que recordemos es una lengua IE descubierta independientemente por Coromines (que la bautizó como "sorotáptico") y Villar, y que se encontraría en una posición intermedia entre el báltico y el itálico dentro de la nube dialectal IE.

Una calle no es una arruga, sino un arroyo

2011-07-18T12:59:00.006+02:00

Como es bien sabido, el castellano arroyo es una forma masculina derivada del latín hispánico (Plinio) arrugia 'galería de mina', un conducto artificial por donde circulaba el agua al objeto de lavar el mineral¹. Lo que ya no es tan conocido es que una forma emparentada *rūga es el verdadero origen del portugués rua y francés rue 'calle, calleja'², erróneamente atribuído por el romanista Meyer-Lübke (REW 7426) al latin rūga 'arruga'³.

De la forma diminutiva *rūgula deriva el gascón arrrolha, rolha, garrolha 'arroyo, cavidad, canal', prestado al euskera arroil, erroila 'canal; barranco; cavidad; raya del pelo'.

En mi opinión, todas estas formas provienen de una lengua vasco-caucásica pero no vascónica a la que llamo cantábrico. La etimología es a partir del PNC *jɦerqqwɨ (˜ -o:) 'ladera; barranco, trinchera', que en euskera nativo da erreka 'barranco, lecho de río o arroyo; arroyo; surco; raya del pelo'. En las lenguas hispánicas encontramos cognatos en portugués rego, asturiano riego, catalán rec, castellano regato 'riachuelo; canal de riego'.

Aunque algunos linguistas han sugerido para estas palabras una etimología céltica a partir de *φrikā 'surco de arado' (latín porca)⁴, hay que rechazarla por razones semánticas como hace Corominas. En este sentido, el parecido con el antiguo eslavo eclesiástico rĕka 'río' (cuya ascendencia IE es dudosa) parece algo más que una simple anécdota.

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¹ Este método era especialmente usado en las minas de oro, hasta el punto que los romanos perforaron una montaña (Montefurado) y desviaron a través de ella el río Sil.
² Meyer-Lübke cita también las formas ruga (dialectos sud-itálicos), arruga (campidorés) y carruga (lucano). Y en euskera encontramos el vizcaíno arruga 'plaza, mercado'.
³ Coromines acepta esta etimología hasta el punto de afirmar que "vistas desde lejos, las calles de una localidad semejan arrugas". Sin comentarios.
⁴ Del PIE *perk´- 'surco', que en mi opinión proviene del PNC *ɦwə:rqqe: 'línea de los montes; límite' > euskera hegi.

Catalan turó 'hill'

2011-07-07T14:05:00.004+02:00

Catalan turó 'hill' < *torōne- (augmentative form) is a pre-Latin word which the Catalan linguist Joan Coromines has related to South Italian tǫro, which has nothing to do with the homonymous word meaning 'bull'. This is linked in turn to Etruscan θaur(a) 'sepulchre', from which I reconstruct a PIE B root *dhaun- 'hill, mound' from which also derives Germanic *dūnō 'hill, dune' (English down, Dutch duin 'dune').

IMHO, this is an old Vasco-Caucasian root found in Burushaski *d’oŋ ‘hill, mound’ and Sino-Tibetan *[t]uŋ (r-) 'hill, mound'. This root is probably represented in Basque zuin, an agricultural technical term meaning 'furrow made in a field before showing' and 'mound of earth extracted from a furrow'.

Dwellings

2011-07-07T12:19:00.015+02:00

Latin colō 'to inhabit, to dwell' (hence in-cola 'inhabitant', in-quil-īnus 'tenant') is derived by Indo-Europeanists from PIE *k^wel- 'to turn', assuming the original meaning was 'to turn up soil'. However, this explanation strikes me as a bad one, so I searched for a better etymology.

I see here a PIE A root *k^wel- 'to dwell' (homonymous with the above one) cognate to PAltaic *gù:lí 'dwelling, cottage'. This is in turn related to PNC *qəlV 'house, hut', which gives also Kartvelian *xl- 'to dwell' (hence *sa-xl- 'house' and PIE B *sel- 'dwelling, settlement' (Latin solum, PGermanic *sala-), an instance of Fournet's Law¹.

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¹ See my earlier post for more information.

Vultures and bears

2011-06-26T15:36:00.041+02:00

Latin voltur, vultur 'vulture' is a loanword from Etruscan velθur (attested as a personal name), in turn derivated from PNC *gwe:rdV (*gwe:t’V-rV) 'a beast or bird of prey', a root also reflected in Greek blosyrós 'terrible, fearsome'. This would be an example of what I call a totem word for naming animals to which they were attributed magical or supernatural qualities.

To this root I also link Altaic *ké:rdu (˜ k`-) 'a k. of bird of prey', (South) Dravidian *karaɖ-i 'black bear' and PIE *pºrd- 'panther, leopard'¹ (Greek párdos, párdalos 'leopard'). From Greek, the word was borrowed into Latin pardus, later used with leo 'lion' in the compound form leo pardus. In Spanish, this word was semantically reanalyzed as the adjective pardo 'brown', firstly referring to the blackish spots of leopards and later generalized to other things².
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¹ With reduction of the initial labiovelar cluster.
² J. Coromines (1973, 2008): Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, p. 414.

Ribs and bones

2011-06-25T14:58:00.057+02:00

Latin costa 'rib; side, flank' is usually linked by Indo-Europeanists to Old Church Slavonic kostĭ 'bone', thus reconstructing a PIE root *kost- 'bone' whose initial velar (by contrast to PIE *h2ost(h)- 'bone') has been traditionally explained as a prefix of some kind. However, Gamkredlize-Ivanov¹ have proposed this alternation to be different reflexes of a former voiceless aspirated uvular *q^h.

The amateur linguist Glen Gordon thinks these are Semitic loanwords from a feminine form of *kʕa(w)ʃ- 'bow' like Phoenician qšt². However, the geographical meanings of costa, such as 'coast' and '(hill) slope', well reflected in Romance, are better explained from Phoenician qsʕt 'edge, limit'(femenine) < Semitic *kʕVyVsʕ- 'end, edge'. Thus I consider the Latin and the Slavic words be homophonous.

The same semantic pattern can be seen in Semitic *gVbVl- 'mountain; boundary, border' (< Afrasian *gVbVl- 'bank, side'), borrowed into PIE A *g´hebhōl- (Greek khephalé:) ~ PIE B *kapōl-o- (Sanskrit kapá:la) 'head'.
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¹ Gamkredlize-Ivanov (1995): Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans, pp. 111-113.

² Mª Josep Estanyol (1980): Vocabulario fenicio.

Clay and chalk

2011-06-24T12:15:00.017+02:00

Celtic *k^wrīyet- 'clay, earth, mud' (Old Irish cré, Old Breton pri) is an intesresting word cognate to Latin crēta 'clay; chalk'. Although this word has no plausible IE etymology, Indo-Europeanists like Mallory & Adams² have concocted a PIE root *tk^wreh1yot- 'clay' to explain this and Tocharian A tukri 'clay'.

More judiciously, the Celtic specialist Ranko Matasović²has proposed to analyse this word as a root *k^wrē- plus a "suffix" *-yet-, which IMHO is a compound 'clay stone' from the PNC roots *GwērV 'stone' and *tʃ’HādwV 'earth, clay'.

Cognate to the first root but with a different vocalism, we've got PIE A *kar- 'hard', reflected in Basque harri 'stone'. The corresponding PIE B form would have *s- by Fournet's Law, and it would explain Basque sarro 'plaque, fur, tartar' and dialectal Basque sarra 'iron tartar'.

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¹ J.P. Mallory & D.Q. Adams (2006): The Oxford introduction to PIE and the PIE world, p. 121.

² R. Matasović (2008): Etymological dictionary of Proto-Celtic, p.p. 182-183.

PIE A and PIE B

2011-06-18T23:22:00.044+02:00

By comparing PIE with other protolanguages, I've discovered two sets of sound correspondences which IMHO respectively correspond to two different lexicon layers I call A and B. For example:

PNC *tɕ’a:dɮwV 'blood; life'

PAltaic *sè:gù 'healthy; blood'

PIE A *y1ak(k)- 'healthy; to cure'
PIE B *h1e-sh2-ºr/ºn- '(flowing) blood'¹, *seh2-n- 'healthy' (Latin sānus)

PNC *=ǝqE 'to raise, to be high' (with a dental prefix)²

PAltaic *t`ák`i 'ceremony, sacrifice'

PIE A *y1ag´- 'to worship'

PIE B *sa(n)k- 'to sanctify' (Latin sanctus), *sak-ro- 'holy' (Latin sacer)

PIE A and PIE B have significant differences in their phonology. For example, in PIE A palatal (and alveolo-palatal) consonants merged with dentals³, while in PIE B they underwent centumization⁴. For example:

PAltaic *na:dʒV 'summer, midday'

PIE A *le:t- 'warm season, day'

PIE B *(d^h)ag´^h-ºr- 'day'⁵

Also in PIE B happened what I call Fournet's Law⁵ by which postvelar continuants *χ ~ *ħ and *ʁ ~ *ʕ "fall back" to respectively *s and *z at word-initial. For example:

PSemitic *ħamm- 'hot'

PIE A *h2e:m-er- 'heat of the day' (Greek hemé:ra 'day')

PIE B *sam- / *sºm-ºr- 'summer'

PAfrasian *ʕaf-aw- / *ʕaf-aj- 'leaf, plant'

PIE A *h2ebi- 'thorn' (Latin abi-e:s 'fir')

PIE B *sap(i)- 'thorn' (PGermanic *saf- 'reed')

PNC *qǝlV 'house, hut'

PKartvelian *xl- 'to dwell, to stay', *(s)-a-xl- 'house'

PIE B *sel- 'dwelling, settlement' (Latin solum)

PIE A *k^wel- 'to inhabit'⁷ (Latin colō, in-quil-īnus)

My guess is that PIE A was spoken in NW and Central Europe since the Neolithic, while PIE B came from the Black Sea area, in contact with Kartvelian and North-Caucasian languages.

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¹ Compare to the Kartvelian cognate *zisx-l/r- 'blood' (with a reduplicated root).

² Victims were raised over the altar in sacrifices.

³ Interestingly, this has also been postulated by Jörg Rhiemeier for his "Europic" language.

⁴ Thus "satem" languages can be seen as conservative with regard to this process.
⁵ Loss of initial *n- is also typical of PIE B, so the Germanic initial dental in this word might be due to PIE A substrate influence.

⁶ After my colleague Arnaud Fournet, who originally proposed Eurasiatic *z- became *h2 in PIE but was rendered as /s/ in a substrate language he called "ZRB".

⁷ Confused with the homonymous 'to turn' by Indo-Europeanists.

Boats and vessels

2011-03-10T15:31:00.008+01:00

Proto-Celtic *longā 'boat, vessel' is a Vasco-Caucasian loanword from PNC *leq’V 'a k. of vessel', a root also reflected in Latin lanx 'dish' (hence bilanx 'balance'), possibly borrowed from Etruscan.

The fact boats and ships like the one shown in the photograph are vessel-shaped is the reason for this semantic shift. In fact, according to the OED, English vessel, an Old French borrowing (modern vaisseau) from Latin vāscellum 'small vase'¹, only adquired the meaning 'boat, ship' until around 1300.

Likewise, Basque ontzi 'ship, vessel'² comes from PNC *bo:ndzz(w)V 'a k. of vessel', a root borrowed into IE *(s)pond^h- 'a k. of wooden vessel' from some Vasco-Caucasian language spoken by Neolithic farmers.

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¹ Which also gives Catalan vaixell 'ship'.
² With the variant untzi in northern dialects.

A Semitic 'horse' Wanderwort

2011-03-01T14:27:00.026+01:00

According to standard etymological dictionaries (e.g. Kluge's), High German Pferd 'horse' (formerly 'post horse') is an early loanword from Late Latin paraverēdus 'post horse'. This is derivated from verēdus, a Celtic (Gallic) loanword *uerēdos < *uo-rēdos (e.g. Cymru gorwydd 'horse'), a deverbal noun from *uo-rēd- 'to travel fast', a compound verb from *uo- 'under' and *rēd- 'to ride'¹.

However, IMHO this etymology is phonetically implausible, as it would need a huge haplology (syllable collapse) to explain the German word. Taking into account the High German consonant shift and the Dutch cognate paard, the protoform would be *perd-, which I consider a Wanderwort from Semitic *pVrd- (˜ *parad^ʕ/z-) 'an equid'.

A similar root *bVrdʕ- ˜ *barz/dʕ- 'mule, horse' is the origin of Late Latin burdus 'mule' and būr(r)icus 'donkey, small horse' (a diminutive form which suggests an assimilated variant *burrus).

Interestingly enough, Latin verēdus was borrowed (through Greek béraidos, beredos) into Arabic barīd- 'express, courier' and similar forms in other Semitic languages, thus contributing to the widespread confusion about these roots.

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¹ Delamarre (2008): Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, p. 314.

A confusion of rhotics

2010-12-29T14:20:00.010+01:00

Most personal names and theonyms found in Latin inscriptions from the old region of Aquitaine correspond to an early form of Basque commonly referred as Proto-Basque by Vascologists. However, some of these names have been wrongly interpreted due to an imperfect reading of rhotics: while the flap /r/ <r> is usually written as RH, the trill /ŕ/ <rr> can be either R or RR. Thus reading R as /r/ instead of the actual /ŕ/ is a mistake many Vascologists have made.

For example, the Aquitanian theonym HERAVSCORRITSEHE, usually interpreted as containing a first member herauś corresponding to modern Basque herauts 'boar', but this is inexact. Firstly, this word is actually one of the variants of a word *enauś(i), *inauś(i) whose meaning is 'heat of sow' or 'sow/female boar in heat' and whose modern forms¹ display two alternative results from a former *n². The correct reading is heŕaus, which corresponds to modern Basque errauts 'ash' (a compound of erre 'to burn' and hauts 'dust')³.

Another example is the anthroponym LAVRCO, whose first element⁴ is commonly interpreted as the numeral lau(r) '4' (with a flap /r/), when it's actually lauŕ (with a trill /ŕ/). This corresponds to modern Basque labur 'short'⁵, so in this case the Aquitanian form corresponds to Iberian and not to Proto-Basque⁶.
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¹ herause, eresu, (h)erüsi, heusi, iñaus, iraus, i(h)ausi, irausi, irusi.

² According to our own interpretation, the regular shift -n- > -0- in Basque (as well as in Gascon and Portuguese) is consequence of an adstrate influence, while the comparatively rare -n- > -r- is part of its own Iberian pedigree.

³ This was first proposed by Hugo Schuchardt.
⁴ Also found in Iberian anthroponyms. The second element is the diminutive suffix -ko.
⁵ The form laur is only found in the Baztanese dialect.
⁶ Iberian has *bu > u while Basque has *bo > o.

A bad purchase

2010-11-08T13:59:00.014+01:00

Latin emō 'to buy' is an output of IE *H1em- 'to take, to distribute', a root also found in Celtic and Balto-Slavic. The "laryngeal" *H1 is reconstructed to account for initial i- in Balto-Slavic (Lithuanian imù, Old Church Slavonic imǫ). However, given its scarce attestation, the likelihood of this being a non-native IE root is high.

In his own blog, Glen Gordon proposes this root to be a recent (early 1st millennium BCE) borrowing from a supposed Etrusco-Rhaetic [sic] verb *em 'to take', which apparently appears as -em in Etruscan numerals like ci-em zaθrum '17', literally '3 from 20', much like Latin duo-de-viginti '18', lit. '2 from 20'.

Unfortunately, Gordon confuses what is clearly a postposition with a verb, and for making his point stronger, he notices two instances of the presumed past form *em-e in the scriptio continua nacemeuruiθalθileniθaliχememesnamertanśinamulu (TLE 366). Unfortunately, he doesn't give us a proper segmentation of the whole inscription.

Given the inadequacy of this proposal, we must find a better one. A Vasco-Caucasian loanword from PNC *HVqqVn- (˜ -m-) 'to take, to snatch', which gives Basque k(h)en-du 'to take away; to ask for a price' (Bengtson) and also Etruscan cen- 'to get, to buy', whose participle cen-u 'got, bought' is found in some inscriptions (Perugia Cippus, Tabula Cortonensis), seems likely.

A note to readers (caveat emptor): don't buy crackpot theories.

Iberian anthroponyms

2010-10-30T20:36:00.016+02:00

Even before complete decipherment of the Iberian scripts was achieved by Gómez Moreno in 1922, the structure of the Iberian anthroponyms had been known since the finding of the Ascoli's Bronze Plate near Rome in 1908. This is a list of Iberian soldiers which formed the Turma Salluitana (an auxiliary horse troop which fought to the side of Pompeius Strabo in the Allies' War) and to whom Roman citizenship was granted. The names appear in the form of praenomen (first name) and cognomen (last name): X son of Y.

Although this inscription allowed epigraphists to identify personal names in Iberian texts as soon as they could been read, it's far from being an equivalent of the Rossetta stone¹. Most Iberian anthroponyms are compounds of two members, either two nouns or a noun and an adjective. This structure is similar to the one of Celtic or Germanic anthroponymy, whose speakers were also warfare aristocracies of the Iron Age².

Examples of Iberian anthroponyms:

Baise-bilos, Bilos-baiser 'Solitary Eagle'
Balke-bilos 'Eagle's Eye'
Bando-nius 'Chief's Horse'³
Biu-nius 'Chief's Mare'
Iskeŕ-adin, Adin-iskeŕ 'Old Hand'
Nios-iskeŕ, Iske-nius 'Chief's Hand'
Sakaŕ-iskeŕ 'Big Hand'
Sosin-adin 'Old Bull'
Sosin-bilos 'Bull-Eagle'⁴
Sosin-biuŕ 'Bull-Mare'

The apparent similarity of Iberian anthroponym elements with Basque words has fueled countless amateurs to support the discredited Vasco-Iberist theory, which in its most extreme form equates Iberian with an ancestral form of Basque, so the modern language can be confidently used to translate Iberian texts⁵. This approach is absolutely unscientific and rejected by serious specialists. The hard truth is that Basque alone is of little help to understand Iberian.

However, with the aid of external comparison and a patient research we have been able to open a breach on what it was an impenetrable wall for many. The first Iberian word whose etymology can be surely stablished is adin 'mature, old' (PNC *=VdʑV 'to grow'⁶ + participle suffix *-nV).

Iberian glossary

adin 'mature, old' ~ Basque adin 'age; judgement'

baiser 'solitary' (Aquitanian baese-)⁷

balke 'eye' < PNC *ʡwilʡi 'eye'
bando 'horse'⁸ ~ Basque mando 'mule'⁹

biki 'cow' ~ Basque behi 'cow'¹⁰

bilos 'eagle, bird of prey' ~ Latin mīluus 'kite'

bi-o-s 'heart' ~ Basque bi-ho-tz 'heart'¹¹

bi-uŕ 'mare' ~ Basque be-hor 'mare'¹²

is-keŕ 'hand'¹³ ~ Spanish garra 'claw'

niś 'girl'¹⁴ ~ Basque nes-ka 'girl' (Aquitanian nes-ka-to).

nios, nius 'chief'¹⁵

śani 'boy' ~ Basque sehi, sein 'boy, servant'¹⁶

sakaŕ 'big' ~ Basque zahar 'old' (formerly 'big')¹⁷

saldu 'horse' ~ Basque zaldi 'horse'¹8

sosin 'bull (Aquitanian soson) ~ Basque zezen 'bull'

tautin 'noble' ~ Aquitanian hauten 'noble', Basque hauta 'election, elite'¹⁹

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¹ Unfortunately, bilingual texts are very scanty and often incomplete due to breaking of the material support (ussualy stone).
² This is a quite different picture from the one commonly found in schoolbooks, which present Iberians as peaceful traders.
³ Found in the Latinized form Mandonius.
⁴ Found in the Latinized form Sosimilos.
⁵ Good examples of Vasco-Iberist crackpots in Spanish literature are Juan Luis Román del Cerro and Jorge Alonso García.
⁶ The native Basque output of this root is hazi 'to grow; seed'.
⁷A compund from *wa- 'this' < PNC *ʔu (˜ *hu) 'demonstrative pronoun (that)' and *-idʑV 'self, oneself'.
⁸ Iberian ortography doesn't differentiate between /b/ and /m/.
⁹ Borrowed from Celtic *mandu 'young animal; horse', an Altaic Wanderwort.
¹⁰A West Europe substrate item *bekko < PNC *bHe:mtɬɬɨ (˜ -u,-i) 'deer, mountain goat'.
¹¹ PNC *jerk’wi 'heart'.
¹²PNC *q’ɦweɫV:/*q’weɫɦV: 'large female domestic animal (cow, mare)'.
¹³ The first element is from *tsHə 'one'.
¹⁴ PNC *nusA (˜ -o-) 'daughter-in-law'.
¹⁵ PNC *nɨwts(w)A: 'prince, ruler; bride-groom'.
¹⁶ PNC *ts’ænʔV 'new'.
¹⁷ PNC *tʃ’ǝqwV 'big'.
¹⁸ PIE *g^(w)Ald- 'foal, young of an ass', with assibilation (palatalization) of the initial velar.
¹⁹ Celtic *toutā 'people'.

De las setas a los labios

2010-10-16T23:28:00.019+02:00

De acuerdo con el diccionario etimológico de Coromines, el español seta es "de origen incierto, quizás del griego sēpta 'cosas podridas' (neutro plural de sēptós 'podrido'¹)". Sin embargo, existe también la variante jeta 'hocico, morro' (antiguamente xeta), que se aleja mucho de este significado y nos acerca al de 'labio, excrecencia'.

Esto nos remite a la raíz semítica *ɬa(n)p-(at-) 'labio', cuyas formas en arameo septā, siptā se aproximan a las que cabría esperar como origen de seta y del euskera ziza, de idéntico significado².

La voz semítica es a su vez cognata de la raíz de sustrato IE *leb- 'labio' (latín labrum, vulgar labium, y germánico *lip-) y del PNC *tɬ’a:npV 'labio'. Con un resultado velar de la africada lateral, esta raíz pasó al afroasiático *k/ganpVr- 'labio, morro' y al eurasiático *k^honbV 'labio, excrecencia blanda', reflejado en el IE *swombh-o-³ (griego somphós 'esponjoso', germánico *swamma-/*swampu-/*sumpu- 'yesca'), altaico *k`ómp[e] 'hongo' y urálico *kómpV 'seta, así como en el IE de sustrato *g(h)umb- 'bulto; cachete (mejilla, nalga)', que se encuentra en balto-eslávico y germánico.

Como palabra errante o "Wanderwort" existe también una forma con metátesis *bonk^hV reflejada en el urálico *paŋka 'Amanita muscaria', hongo alucinógeno consumido en rituales chamánicos por lo menos hacia 4.000 aC⁴, así como en el griego sphongós 'esponja' y latín fungus 'hongo, seta'.

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¹ De ahí palabras como sepsis o antiséptico.

² Igualmente, sapo proviene de la raíz semítica *ɬ’abb- 'una clase de lagartija'.
³ Con sibilante inicial debido a la ley de Fournet.
⁴ Es significativo que en algunas lenguas urálicas esta raíz diera lugar a la palabra 'ebrio'. En Cataluña existe una tradición de consumo de este hongo, y se dice que el arquitecto catalán Antoni Gaudí se sirvió de él para conseguir las visiones que luego plasmaba en las extraordinarias formas de su arquitectura.

Knives and ploughs

2010-07-01T11:07:00.185+02:00

According to the traditional view, English knife, from Germanic *knība-z 'knife' (with no native IE etymology), is a Wanderwort which spread from Old Norse into Old English and other Germanic languages, as well as Old French quenif, quanif 'pocket knife', (and in diminutive form) Occitan ganivet, Aragonese cañivete and Basque kanibet, ganibet, kanabita, gaiñibeta, ganabeta, kanit, gaminta 'penknife'.

However, the German linguist Theo Vennemann¹ (see my earlier post) reversed the propagation direction, considering Basque kanibet to be the original form, as a compound of kana 'cane' (a loanword from Latin canna) and bedoi 'pruning shears'², a dialectal word of limited extension. But (unknowingly to him) the latter is a loanword from Gaulish uidubion 'hoe' (glossed as Latin vidubium), a compound from uidu- 'wood' and -bion < Celtic *bi-na- 'to hit, strike' < IE *b^hejH-. This root is reflected in Germanic as *bī́ɵla-, *bīdla- 'knife, sword, ploughsare' > English bill.

My own proposal is that Latin novācula 'razor, knife' (Portughese navalha, Spanish navaja, Catalan navalla, Aragonese novalla) < *kne-wa-tlā, traditionally derived from IE *ksew- 'to rub, to whet'³, is actually a reflex of IE *kneH2- 'to scratch, to scrape'. This etymology can also explain Basque nabas- 'plough' (in compounds)³< *knā-wa-z and Germanic *knība-z < *knē-wa-z as borrowings from some IE language (possibly Italoid) where IE *w gave b.

The semantic shift from 'knife' to 'plough' can also be observed in the descendants of Latin culter 'knife' > Occitan coltre, French coutre, Italian coltro 'ploughshare', Basque golde 'plough', the original meaning being transferred to the diminutive cultellum > Galician coitelo, Spanish cuchillo, Catalan coltell 'knife' (the latter form being displaced by ganivet).

Another interesting Basque word is saratu 'to hoe', a loanword from IE *sºrp- 'sickle; to cut' (Latin sar(r)iō 'to hoe (vine)' < *sarpiō.)
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¹ Zur Etymologie der Sippe von engl. knife, franz. canif, bask. kanibet*, in Europa Vasconica, Europa Semitica (2003), pp. 427-452.

² Also Bearnese bedui. See García de Diego, Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico (1985), pp. 1063-1064.
³ Considered by many Indo-Europeanists to be an extension of IE *k´es- 'to cut'.
⁴ There is also the Bearnese hapax naves '(large) knife'.

Desenredando el ovillo

2010-05-23T12:39:00.066+02:00

Contrariamente a la que piensan filólogos como Coromines, el castellano copo 'mechón de cáñamo, lana, lino, algodón u otra materia que está en disposición de hilarse; grumo, coágulo' no tiene nada que ver con copa¹, sino con la raíz IE *(s)keup- 'mechón, copete, borla', una isoglosa del germánico y eslávico.

De esta misma etimología proviene también el euskera kofa, koba 'especie de pelota que se forma en los colchones [de lana] y en el cabello; cogollo [de hortalizas]'. Y con vocalismo /a/ tenemos el catalán cabdell 'ovillo; cogollo [de hortalizas]', una forma diminutiva *kapU-t-ellU², así como el euskera kamu (R), kanu (R), kanü (Z) 'pelota de lana', con nasalización de la labial.

Con un significado similar tenemos el catalán tofa y el francés touffe 'espesura (de cabellos, follaje, limaduras)', posiblemente relacionadas con el latín tūfa 'cresta de plumas en el casco', un extranjerismo según los autores clásicos. El diccionario etimológico francés de Bloch-Wartburg relaciona touffe con toupet 'flequillo', préstamo del fráncico *top 'mechón',(alemán Zopf), a través de una variedad alto-alemana (en concreto el alemánico) donde supuestamente el paso p > pf se habría producido antes que t > z. En todo caso, no existe etimología IE para esta palabra, pero podemos encontrar un cognato en el altaico *t`èp`á 'mechón de pelo'³.

A partir del IE *geup- 'cueva, madriguera, mina'⁴ se deriva el castellano copo (de nieve, cereales) y el euskera kofa '(hueco de) árbol podrido', formas homónimas de las reseñadas anteriormente. Y del IE *dheub- 'profundo' tenemos el catalán tofa 'masa esponjosa' (tofa de neu = copo de nieve), tou 'poroso, esponjoso, blando'⁵, gascón toua 'cavidad; abrigo bajo una roca; cavidad donde desaparece un río', tou 'cavidad; hueco', aragonés toba 'gruta entre rocas', tobo 'cavidad'.

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¹ Del latín vulgar cuppa. Una palabra errante (Wanderwort) que se encuentra también en el euskera kopa (S, R) 'cuezo pequeño', (B) 'estuche en que el segador tiene la piedra de afilar', (G) 'cesto pequeño que se lleva al hombro', y el alemán Kopf 'cabeza' (donde desplazó al nativo Haupt ~ latín caput, y cuyo origen último es el PNC *gæp’e: 'una clase de vasija'.
² Con -t- infija como en cafe-t-illo, diminutivo de café.

³Al igual que en túrquico, en el germánico *tuppa-z se ha producido una colisión entre los significados 'mechón' y 'montaña, cima' (p.ej. inglés top).

⁴ Reflejado también en el latín clásico cavus 'hueco, vacío'. El romance *cova (castellano cueva, catalán cova, euskera koba, etc.) es un germanismo.
⁵ Habitualmente relacionados con el latín vulgar tōfa (clásico tōfus) 'caliza porosa', representado por ejemplo en el catalán tofa 'ladrillo sin cocer, secado al sol'.

Some wrong Spanish etymologies

2010-05-03T13:42:00.020+02:00

Some Coromines' Spanish etymologies (the ones found in the DRAE are generally nastier) enjoy a greater credit than they actually deserve.

For example, if we look at cerrar 'to close, shut' in his Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, we can see he derives it from late Latin *serare < Latin sera 'bolt, lock', in spite that Spanish /c/ (in the Middle Ages a dental affricate [ts] and now an interdental fricative [θ]) can't come from Latin /s/. He denies elsewhere any relationship between this word and Catalan serrar, French serrer 'to tighten', although they fit both phonetically (as [ts] > [s] in these languages) and semantically (the meanings 'closed' and 'tight, dense' are related). The answer is all these words¹ are Pyrenaic (a Vasco-Caucasian substrate language) loanwords from the PNC root *=utɕE(rV) 'thick, fat'.

Another weird etymology is jara 'rockrose (Cistus)', a kind of bush common in the Iberian Peninsula which Coromines derives from Arabic ša^cra 'low bush', where [ʃ] /x/ regularly developed into [χ] /j/. Apparently, he ignores Basque zare 'basket' and (t)xara 'rockrose (wood)', a word of Pyrenaic origin for which Bengtson suggests an etymology from PNC *tʃ’ʃ’wɦeli (˜ tɕ’ɕ’,-ʕ-,-ɫ-) 'a k. of foliage tree'². The palatized form would have been borrowed into Spanish xara, then jara.

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¹ There's also Basque (Biscayan) zarri 'dense', zarra-tu 'dense; to close, shut'.
² Related to Paleo-Eurasian *tʃwalV 'willow', a root represented in Paleo-European *sal(i)k- 'willow' (Celtic *salik-, Latin salix, Germanic *salx-) and native IE *welik- 'willow' (Greek helíkē, English willow).

Strawberry fields forever

2010-05-01T16:17:00.165+02:00

Starostin reconstructs a Paleo-Eurasian root *NEk’rV 'thorny bush' > Altaic *ńíkrV 'a k. of thorny tree', from which I derive Paleo-European *ag´ºr- (Gaulish agraniō- 'sloe, fruit of the blackthorn', English acorn¹, Latin agresta 'green grape', Greek ágrios 'wild'), with loss of the initial nasal. Its IE native counterpart would be *d^hreg´^h- 'sloetree, blackthorn'² (Celtic *dragenā 'sloe, fruit of the blackthorn'³, Albanian drédhë 'strawberry'). Greek hrá:ks, hró:ks 'grape' < *srāg-, is probably a Thracian loanword from the same root.

Paleo-Eurasian *bVrdzV 'thorn' is the origin of Kartvelian *bardzg-/*burdzg(a) 'thorn, thorny plant'. The sibilant *dz is reflexed as *g´ in IE *b^hrag´- 'strawberry' > Lithuanian brãškē 'garden strawberry', Latin frāgum 'strawberry'⁴ and as *g´^h in *wreH2g´^h- 'thorn' > Celtic *wragi- 'needle', Lithuanian rãžas 'dry stalk, stubble; pronk of fork', Greek hrákhos 'thorn-hedge', hrákhis 'spine, backbone'.

Altaic *núŕi (˜ -e) 'a k. of berry, grape'⁵ is related to Hittite muri- '(bunch) of grapes' and IE *moro- 'blackberry'.
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¹ Indo-Europeanists usually group this with Lithuanian uga 'berry', Old Church Slavic jagoda 'fruit', vin-jaga 'grape', but I prefer to group the Balto-Slavic forms with Latin ūva 'grape', thus reconstructing *H3g^wh-ā 'berry'.
² Found (with simplification of the initial cluster) in Basque lahar, nahar 'blackberry (Rubus fructicosus); buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica); caltrop (Tribulus terrestris)'.
³ Related to this is *d^hren- 'cornel cherry' (Old High German dirn-baum, Russian derën) ~ *tºrnu- 'thorn'.
⁴ Usually though to be derivated from *srāg-. French fraise, Spanish fresa 'strawberry' is probably an Italoid loanword from the same root (Italoid is a "satem" language with *b^h- > f- like Latin). Basque has araga 'strawberry' and arakatz 'gooseberry'.
⁵ Notice than the supposed Korean cognate *nùrúk 'yeast' presented in the database doesn't correspond to this root but to *ńjuŕge 'a k. of weed' < Paleo-Eurasian *nUŕV 'grain, corn'.

El roble y el haya

2010-04-30T12:16:00.010+02:00

El IE regional del NW (no PIE) *perk^w- tiene aparentemente dos formas, una masculina 'roble' (latín quercus 'roble, encina') y otra femenina 'pino' (inglés fir 'abeto'). Se trata de un préstamo (loanword) vasco-caucásico a partir del PNC *χwɨrkkV 'árbol, roble', con *χw > *p.

El PIE *b^heH2g´o- 'haya' (latín fāgus 'haya', griego phēgos 'roble', ruso buz 'olmo') es también de origen vasco-caucásico a partir del PNC *mħoqqwe (˜ -ʕ-) 'roble'.

Efectivamente, tal y como propuso Starostin en un viejo artículo, el PIE contiene un buen número de préstamos vasco-caucásicos¹ de época neolítica. Las correspondencias fonéticas entre éstos y el PNC sugieren una única lengua de origen, que tendría características como:

1) PNC *w- > b- en posición inicial.
2) PNC *l/*r caen en ciertos grupos consonánticos (clusters).
3) PNC *l > r intervocálicamente y ante consonantes.
4) Una transformación del sistema vocálico del PNC que implica la delabialización de PNC *o.
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¹ Hay que aclarar que el proto norcaucásico (PNC) reconstruído por Starostin y Nikolayev es una entidad mucho más antigua que lo que aparentemente se podría pensar, y por tanto, más próxima a lo que sería el auténtico proto-vasco-caucásico, aunque Starostin nunca incluyó el euskera ni la hipótesis vasco-caucásica en sus investigaciones.

Cuencas y cuencos

2010-04-29T11:31:00.022+02:00

Este juego de palabras me sirve de excusa para (por primera vez en la historia de este blog) no utilizar la lengua de los yanquis, en la que por otra parte a veces se me hace pesado escribir. Así que mis lectores anglófonos me van a disculpar si les exijo un pequeño esfuerzo (a little effort) al leer estas líneas.

Recientemente, RBA-Gredos ha tenido a bien obsequiarnos con la reimpresión (2008: tapa blanda, 2010: tapa dura) de la 3ª edición (1973) del Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana de Joan Coromines, presentado por su antiguo colaborador José Antonio Pascual (autor del prólogo y co-autor del más extenso Diccionario Crítico y Etimológico Castellano e Hispánico) como "la solución a los enigmas etimológicos más importantes de nuestra lengua". Lejor de ser así, muchas de las etimologías propuestas por el filólogo catalán resultan indefendibles hoy en día, pero a pesar de ello es posible que Coromines nos ayude a resolver algunos enigmas.

Así por ejemplo, Cormines deriva cuenca (basin) y cuenco (bowl) del latín concha 'concha de molusco' (mussel-shell), a su vez préstamo del griego kóŋkhê id. Esta etimología explicaría el castellano regional de Álava canco, cauco 'hoyo que se abre en algunas las hayas para que recojan el agua de lluvia', relacionado con el euskera kaiku 'cuenco de madera (para recoger la leche ordeñada)'¹, como forma pirenaica a partir de un antiguo **kanku².

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¹ Relacionada por los vascólogos con el latín tardío caucum 'cuenco de madera' (wooden bowl), posiblemente relacionado con el urálico *kawka 'comedero' (trough) y el báltico *kaûʃ-a- 'cráneo, vasija' (skull, vessel).
² Existe también el homómino kaiku (S) 'aguileño/a' (aquiline) como parte del compuesto sudur-kaiku 'nariz aguileña' (aquiline nose), a partir del IE *ko(n)g- 'clavija (peg), gancho (hook), pinza (claw)'.

Crackpots in action

2010-04-15T15:08:00.032+02:00

In historical linguistics, the term crackpot is applied to people (no matter whether academic or amateur) who defend absurd theories (and also to the theories themselves). Crackpots should be differentiated from pseudo-linguists, people with none or little knowledge of linguistics who engage themselves in the subject with catastrophic results (e.g. Edo Nyland or Polat Kaya).

I'm going to list the crackpots I've got acquainted with in my own career¹. The first one is the French Arnaud Fournet, who has posited an "Proto-Exo-African" [sic] super-family to replace Nostratic. Not only he considers Basque and Etruscan to be remnants of a Paleo-European substrate², but he also claims Yenisseian is an IE language, and has "discovered" several imaginary IE substrate languages in present-day France. Recently, he has written with the Nostraticist Allan Bomhard a paper on the supposed relationship between IE and Hurrian.

The Canadian Glen Gordon is known for his Indo-Aegean hypothesis relating IE and Etruscan³. Being a sui generis Nostraticist, he's a Bomhard's fan but a harsh critic of Starostin⁴. He also likes to "nip in the bud" his rivals' theories.

The German Theo Vennemann is an academic scholar who believes OEH isn't related to IE but to Basque, constituting a "Vasconic" substrate. He also posits an "Atlantidic" substrate akin to Semitic in the Atlantic fringe⁵.

The Italian Mario Alinei is the champion of the so-called Paleolithic Continuity Theory (PCT) of IE origins, which states that IE languages were already spoken in their respective historical homelands since the Mesolithic. The Valencian Jesús Sanchis is one of his supporters.

Last but not least is Michel Morvan, an unortodox French Vascologist who posited a genetical relationship between Basque and Eurasiatic in his doctoral thesis Les origines linguistiques du Basque (1996).

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¹ I should notice that some of them have criticized my own work, even to the point of making personal attacks and censoring me in their own blogs/lists.

² In his own words, Basque and Etruscan "never moved an inch".

³ In the same line than the Spanish Indo-Europeanist Rodríguez Adrados, but a more sophisticated approach.

⁴ Even mentioning the name Starostin makes him angry.
⁵ According to Wikipedia, he now has replaced this theory with a Punic superstrate in Germanic.

Words for 'sea'

2010-04-01T12:55:00.193+02:00

There's no universal word for 'sea' in IE languages. The most widespread (Celtic, Latin, Germanic, Balto-Slavic) one is *mori-, related to Altaic *mju:ri 'water'.

Another widespread root is *seH2l- 'salt, sea'¹ > Greek halê 'sea'², which I think ultimately comes from PNC *q’eɦlV (˜ -ɫ-) 'bitter'³, with an evolution PNC *q’- > pre-PIE *χ- > PIE *s- (by Fournet's Law). This Vasco-Caucasian root is reflected in Basque gatz 'salt', gazi 'salty' + PNC *ts’s’wenhV 'salt'⁴ > *gas-dane > gazta(i), gazna 'cheese', both Cantabrian loanwords.

Dolgopolsky proposes a Paleo-Eurasian root *dalqV 'wave' (ND 526) reflected in IE *d^helH- > Greek thálassa (Attic thálatta) 'sea'. In a IE substrate language (probably Italoid), this root gives Greek sálos 'turbulent movement of the sea, flushing of the waves', Latin salum 'open sea; sea waves'⁵.

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¹ Without any linguistic evidence, Arnaud Fournet relates this to Kartvelian *zoɣw-. See his document.
² A feminine word whose masculine counterpart is halós 'salt'.

³ The glottalized stop is retained (with secondary labialization) in Kartvelian *q’wel- 'cheese'.
⁴ Native outputs from this root are itsaso 'sea', itze 'sea' (an archaic form quoted by Trombetti) + urde 'pig' > izurde, gizaurde 'dolphin' (lit. 'sea-pig').
⁵ Which again Fournet unjustifiedly relates to IE *seH2l-.

Vasco-Caucasian loanwords in Proto-Uralic

2010-03-29T16:08:00.004+02:00

There's a number of Proto-Uralic words with Vasco-Caucasian parallels:

*δ'yxmi 'birdcherry' ~ PNC *dʒɦumV 'bush, grass; a k. of fruit'
*joke / *juka 'river' ~ PNC *jimχχwA 'river'
*lamte 'low, lowland' ~ PNC *lhemdɮɮwɨ 'earth'
*pe(n)tʃa 'pine, conifer' ~ PNC *pintsʼsʼwA 'resin, juice'

I think these loanwords reflect the contact between Vasco-Caucasian-speaking farmers and Proto-Uralic-speaking hunter-gatherers.

Paleo-Eurasian and the Paleo-European substrate

2010-03-05T13:57:01.299+01:00

I've turned my attention to some regional words found in languages of NW Europe (specially Celtic) related to fauna, flora and the physical environment which I consider them to be remnants of a Paleo-European substrate spoken in Mesolithic Europe and whose sound correspondences within Paleo-Eurasian are different from those of native IE (in fact, its closest relative seems to be Altaic).

For example, Paleo-Eurasian initial *n- or *ń- can be either labialized into m- before back vowels o, u (and sometimes before a as well), as in *marko- 'horse'¹ (a regional word found in Celtic and Germanic) ~ Altaic *ńargu 'young male deer/elk'², or denasalized into d- elsewhere: Latin dām[m]a 'fallow deer' ~ Altaic *ńàme 'goat, deer'.

From Paleo-Eurasian *ʕEk’u 'water' we've got Paleo-European *ak^wā 'water'³, found in the Old European Hydronymy (OEH), Latin and Germanic and whose native IE counterpart is *H1ēg^wh- 'to drink'.

Paleo-Eurasian *ɣoŋɣV 'peg, nail' gives Paleo-European *ko(n)g- 'peg, hook, claw' (German Haken, English hook, Russian кóготь 'claw') and native IE *H3n(o)g^h- 'nail' (Latin unguis, Greek ónyx 'nail').

Apart from its intrinsic value, this research has deep implications for the correspondences of the actual native IE lexicon within Paleo-Eurasian. It also would imply an earlier chronology than the one commonly proposed by Nostraticists -usually the Late Pleistocene (roughly 15,000-12,000 BC)-, as according to genetics, European Mesolithic was a "domestic" event with no external migrations during that period.
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¹ Gamkrelidze, T. & Ivanov, V. (1995): Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans, regard this as a Bronze Age Wanderwort from Altaic *mórV 'horse' relative to horse riding. This could be the case of Celtic *mandu- 'young of an animal, kid' (Basque mando 'mule', Latin mannus 'poney'), *mendjo- 'horse' (Romanian mînz 'horse', Albanian mëz 'foal') ~ Altaic *mando 'a k. of elk', possibly related to PNC *bHaɮɮi (˜ -ǝ-) 'young one, young (of animals)', with an -n- infix and nasalization of the initial consonant (cfr. Turkic *buto 'young of camel').

² This word has been linked to Celtic *jorko- 'roebuck' and Greek zdorks, dorkás 'gazelle, roe deer', but I think this is a loanword from PNC *ʁHwo:r[tʃ’]o (˜ -tɕ’-, -ǝ) 'deer, game' (PNC *tʃ’ would correspond to PIE *k´). Another loanword from this origin is Celtic *joini- 'rushes, reed' < PNC *ts’s’wǝ:nHe: 'reed, cane'.
³ The actual root is *ak^w- and -ā is the IE feminine suffix.

Celtic and IE substrates

2010-03-01T12:31:00.047+01:00

There's toponomastic evidence of IE substrate languages spoken in parts of Europe before the historical attested languages. One of them is the Old European hydronymy language (Krahe's Alteuropäische). OEH looks like an archaic IE language (even more than Anatolian), with predominance of the vowel /a/ and lack of inflection. In this way, it would reflect the stage called IE I or "pre-flexional" by Rodríguez Adrados¹.

I adscribe to this substrate Celtic *nantu-/*nanto- 'stream, valley', from PIE *d^hen- 'to run, flow' (cfr. Latin fōns, fōntis 'spring, source'), with assimilation of the initial dental to the following nasal in the source language (that is, PIE *d^h- > *d- > *n-).

Another IE substrate found in SW Europe is Italoid (aka Sorotaptic), which according to linguists Joan Coromines and Francisco Villar was somewhere between Baltic and Italic in the IE dialectal cloud.

In his last book, Prof. Koch of the University of Wales postulates Tartessian (found in inscriptions of SW Iberia dating back to the 7th century BC) as a Celtic language with "aberrant" features like uar- < *ufor- 'over, on', with /a/ instead of the expected /o/ (cfr. Old Irish for). This apparent contradiction could be explained if Tartessian had an Italoid substrate.

According to Villar, IE had a 4 vowel system /i, E, A, U/ until the reduction of *H2e > a introduced a new central vowel in the system. In some languages (Celtic, Italic, and Greek), /a/ pushed /A/ back into /o/, while in Italoid (and also Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian) they merged into a single vowel.

There's an Italoid lead inscription (now lost) found in Amélie-les-Bains/Els Banys d'Arles (Roussillon) which has been studied by Coromines². It's a votive text dedicated to the nymph deities called KANTAS NISCAS. The first word derivates from PIE *k^wento- 'holy' and the second one is the Iberian counterpart of Basque neska 'girl' < *neś-ka³ < PNC *nusA (˜ -o-) 'daughter-in-law'.

Latin has loanwords from Italoid like vagus 'wanderer' < IE *weg´^h- 'to carry (in a vehicle)'.
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¹ See for example his Nuevos estudios de lingüística indoeuropea (1988).
² Els ploms sorotàptics d'Arles, in Entre dos llenguatges, vol. II, p. 143-146 (1976).
³ Iberian niś is found as an anthroponym formant in inscriptions and -ka is a diminutive suffix.

Celtic *dūno- 'fort'

2010-02-28T13:49:00.012+01:00

Celtic *dūno- 'fort' is found as a toponym suffix in areas which were formerly Celtic-speaking as France and Great Britain, where it takes the form -ton. It was also borrowed into Germanic (English town, Dutch duin 'garden', German Zaun 'enclosure').

The origin of this word has been disputed, and some Indo-Europeanists have suggested a possible relationship with Latin fūnus 'burial' (from the unattested meaning of 'burial mound'), thus reconstructing a PIE root *d^huHno-¹. But IMHO this etymology fits better to Germanic *dūnō 'hill, dune' (English down, Dutch duine, borrowed into English dune). I regard this word as a Paleo-European root *d^haunV ~ *d^hūnV 'hill, mound' also reflected in Etruscan θaur(a) 'tomb', with n > r.

A connection with PNC *dompe 'edge, bank', which is the source of Greek táphos (native) and túmbos (a Pelasgian loanword) 'tomb', is possible, although phonetical developments are not clear.

From my own experience², I know the meaning 'enclosure' is related to 'thick, dense, packed', so I link the Celtic word to Semitic *duhn- 'fat'.
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¹ See for example Mallory & Adams (2006): The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, p. 223.
² For example, Spanish cerrar 'to close', Catalan serrar, French serrer 'to tighten', Basque (Biscayan) zarri 'dense', zarra-tu 'dense; to close', ultimately from PNC *=utɕE(rV) 'thick, fat'.

The lentil

2009-12-31T14:43:00.049+01:00

The native Basque word for 'lentil (Lens culinaris)' can be reconstructed as *tink-il:(a), *sink-il:(a), most of whose variants are restricted to the dialect spoken in the Navarrese valley of Salazar¹: tindil, txindil, txingla, xingala. The form txintxil(a) spread also to the neighbouring Roncalese dialect, and further along in the Aragonese valley of Ansó we find tentilla, an interference with the genuine Romance form lentilla.

This word (also found in other Romance languages like Spanish lenteja, French lentille) is derived from Latin lenticula, a diminutive form of Latin lēns, lentis 'lentil', with cognates in Germanic (Old High German linsī, linsin), Slavic *lę̄tjā and Baltic (Lithuanian lę̃ši-s (-iō)). This could be related to Semitic *ʕa-daʃ- 'lentil' with a shift d- > l- and a nasal infix.

The Basque forms tilista, txilista, dilista (Westernmost dialects)² are a diminutive form *ti-lis-ta with a fossilized Berber article (feminine plural) ti-³ agglutinated.

I think this is a substrate loanword whose ultimate origin is Afro-Asiatic *da/ingw- 'a k. of beans; corn', a root widely attested in several branches.

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¹ In other dialects this word can refer to different plants, mostly of the vetch (Vicia) family.
2 The Gipuzkoan form dilista was chosen for representing the word in the standardized language or Euskera Batua (lit. 'United Basque language').
³ Also found in Sardinian.

The fox

2009-12-29T13:26:00.017+01:00

There're two different words for 'fox' in Basque. The first one (restricted to Biscayan) is luki¹, from the Paleo-Eurasian root *lok’V (˜ *nok’V) 'fox, lynx', represented in Uralic *ńukV 'fox', Dravidian *nakkV 'fox, jackal', IE *luḱ- 'lynx', Altaic *l[ù]k`V̀ (˜ -k-) 'lynx, wild cat'.

The second one is azeri, axeri, azari, axari < *a-seali, with the Biscayan variants azegari, azagari < *a-sekali. I think this is a Cantabrian word related to PNC *tsEhwo:le (˜ -a) 'fox, jackal'², a Wanderwort found in Kartvelian *dʑaɣl, Dravidian *dʒa:[v]il 'dog' and ultimately coming from Paleo-Eurasian *[tʃw]VlɣV 'fox, weasel'³ (with metathesis).

This word constitutes an interesting example of homonymy. The Latin anthroponym Asenarius (which is the origin of the surname Aznar) is reflected as Acenari, Aceari in Navarrese documents (of course written in Latin) from the Middle Ages, with regular loss of intervocalic -n-. As the last one matches the expected old form *azeari 'fox', it lead Vascologists to believe this was the actual etymology.

Other reflexes of this Vasco-Caucasian root can be found in Sardinian gjágaru, jágaru 'a k. of shepherd dog' as well as Balkanic zagar and Greek zágaros, zágari 'a k. of bloodhound'⁴.

Spanish zorro 'fox'⁵ (whose etymology has also been controversial) is a Noah word (euphemism) 'furry' akin to Basque txorru 'lock of hair', a Tyrrhenian word related to PNC *tɕ’ħwǝ:rǝ 'hair; switch, long branch'⁶. From this origin also come Basque zurda, txurda 'mane', Spanish churra 'a k. of sheep with coarse wool' and Sardinian tsurra 'sheep'.

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¹ The etymology defended by Vascologists from the Latin anthroponym Lucius is untenable.
2 This etymology was first proposed by Bengtson.
³ Possibly from this derives PNC *tsa:rggwɨ: (˜ -ǝ:, -a:) 'weasel, marten', which Bengtson links to Basque sagu 'mouse'.
⁴ As we've already seen in the case of Spanish perro and Berber a-bajrru, the meanings 'dog' and 'fox' are readily interchangeable.
⁵ As in the case of perra 'bitch', the feminine zorra has the negative connotation of 'whore'.
⁶ This etymology was first proposed by Bengtson, but I've extended it to other words.

More about pigs

2009-12-26T16:21:00.007+01:00

The native PIE word for 'pig', as opposed to *porḱo-, which is a Vasco-Caucasian loanword (see my post), is *sū-. This word was borrowed into Basque ti, an isolated Roncalese form similar to Albanian thi.

From this root and Kartvelian *eʃw- 'boar, pig', Starostin reconstructs Paleo-Eurasian *ʔVʃu 'pig', found as second member of a Basque compound *ena-uśi (whose first part doesn't concern us here): herauts 'male boar', herause, heusi, iñaus, iraus(i), irusi, i(h)ausi 'heat of sow'.

This Basque word has been the object of a confusion regarding the Aquitanian theonym HERAVSCORRITSEHE. Although the German linguist Hugo Schuchardt correctly proposed its first element to be related to Basque errauts, erhauts 'cinder, dust' (a compound from erre 'burnt' and hauts 'dust'), he changed his mind afterwards and linked it to herauts, being unaware of the variants which point to a nasal in Proto-Basque.

This mistake, resulting from a poor understanding of the ortographic conventions of the Aquitanian inscriptions (in Latin), which employed -R- to represent the thrill rhotic (Basque <rr>) instead of the flap one (Basque <r>), as well as laziness for reconstructing the protoform of the Basque word, has been copied down by Vascologists to this day¹.

Sardinian irrussu 'little boar' is a compound from the above root and a first member related to PNC *wHɨrχχV 'mountain goat' or its derived form IE *H1epero- 'boar' < *?i-wHɨrχχV (see this post).

Probably related is Berber *kus- 'pig', borrowed into Asturian gocho, Basque (Zuberoan) kutxu, Catalan cotx, Aragonese cochín, Spanish cochino, French cochon 'pig'.
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¹ Gorrochategui: Estudio sobre la onomástica indígena de Aquitania (1984), pp. 330-331.

Hair and wool

2009-12-22T17:55:00.018+01:00

Basque bil(h)o 'hair, mane' is an interesting word. In compound with the verb utzi, itzi 'to leave' it gives biluz 'naked', biluzi 'to get naked' (with many variants: biloiz, bilaiz(i), bileiz(i), biluxi, buluzi, buluxi).

The etymology of this word has puzzled more than one Vascologist, specially given its similarity to Latin pilus '(a single) hair'. But a borrowing can be safely discarded due to phonetical reasons, because Latin -l- would have given -r- in Basque.

An alternative source from Latin villus 'tuft, lock of hair; hair' (probably an Italoid loanword parallel to Baltic *wil-na 'wool') was then proposed, but I find this unrealistic. My own view is that Basque bil(h)o and Latin pilus are one and the same Cantabrian word, ultimately related to PNC *p’VħVɫV 'feather; mane' (an etymology proposed by Bengtson).

Other 'hair' words found in IE languages come from this Vasco-Caucasian root. In particular, Greek púligges [pl.] 'hairs of the body' and Sanskrit pulakās [pl.] 'bristling hairs of the body' are similar to Nakh *pēla-k’ 'feather'.

The Tyrrhenian counterpart of bil(h)o is Basque ule 'hair', ile 'hair, wool', with several doublets in compounds. The meaning 'wool' suggested to some authors a possible borrowing from Gothic wulla < Proto-Germanic *wullō(n), but this rather makes me think PIE *w̥lH2neHa- 'wool' could be in fact a very old Vasco-Caucasian loanword: *p’VħVɫV > *bVlħV > *wVlħ-, with merging of b/w in PIE (where the voiced labial stop is very rare).

The house

2009-11-22T20:05:00.120+01:00

Latin casa 'hut, cottage' ('house' in several Romance languages) is a loanword from the IE substrate language called Italoid¹ by the Spanish Indo-Europeanist Francisco Villar. In this language, intervocalic -δ- > -z- (Latin <s>) as seen in Celtiberian (which presumably had an Italoid substrate²). The suffixed form cas-trum 'fortification' corresponds to Old English heaδor 'enclosure, prison' and Celtic *katrik (Old Irish cathir 'town', Welsh cader 'wall, fence, fortication')³.

This corresponds to PIE *ket- 'room', a root also found in English hut and Uralic *kota 'hut, house'. This is probably a Wanderwort related to PNC *GGwa:t’V 'street, block, village'.

Basque etxe (archaic etse) 'house' is presumably related to PNC *tɬ’ɬ’VtɕV ‘log; pole (for planking ceilings)’, which is also the origin of laz (Z) 'beam, rafter' (Bengtson).

Basque ol(h)a 'hut; dwelling' (also found as a toponym suffix) is related to PNC *bulttɬ’V (˜ -ɨ-) 'house'⁴and appears in the compound etxol(a), etxa(b)ola, txabola 'hut, cabin'⁵, whose first member is etxe.

French chalet 'cottage; mountain house', a term originated in the Swiss Alps, is a diminutive of *kala 'shelter', related to PNC *qǝlV 'house, hut'. This word appears in ancient toponyms like Cala-gurris (modern Calahorra) 'red house'⁶ (cfr. Basque gorri 'red') and Burdi-gala (modern Bordeaux) 'blue house' (cfr. Basque urdin 'blue').
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¹ Also known as Sorotaptic by Joan Coromines.
² See Villar: Estudios de celtibérico y toponimia prerromana (1995).
³ Itself a substrate loanword.
⁴ The loss of initial *b- before /o/ is regular in Basque.
⁵ Borrowed into Spanish chabola. Incomprehensibly, Trask considers etxa(b)ola and txabola to be unrelated and derives the latter from Old Spanish javola (modern jaula) 'cage, pen, cell'.
⁶ Dauzat: Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française (1938).

Two roots for 'earth'

2009-11-21T00:31:00.017+01:00

According to Bengtson, Basque lur, lu- 'earth' is related to PNC *lhemdɮɮwɨ 'earth'¹. This rooy is also found as a loanword in substratal IE *lendh- 'open land, waste' (Celtic, Germanic, Balto-Slavic) and Uralic *lamti (*lamtз) 'lowland, meadow'. I supose this term was introduced by Neolithic farmers of the Linear Ceramics (LBK) culture. From Gaulish *landā 'open land' come the toponym Landes and Basque landa 'field, lot'2.

There's also a widespread Paleo-Eurasian root *dVQV 'dirt, clay' whose Basque reflexes are lohi, lot- 'dirty, mud'and zohi, zot- 'clod of earth; brick', the first with the standard treatment of the initial dental stopand the second with assibilation.

This root was borrowed into PIE *dhigh- 'wall, fortification' (Sanskrit sa-dih- 'mound, heap, wall', Avestan para-daēza 'enclosure'³, Greek teîkhos ~ toîkhos 'wall'), which in NW languages refers to clay-like substances (e.g. English dough). But the native PIE reflex is *dheghóm 'earth'.

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¹ Dialectally also 'uncultivated land, desert'.

² There is also the old collective Biscayan form landar 'desert'.
³ Borrowed into Greek parédeisos, hence English paradise.

Sea meadows

2009-11-16T13:48:00.045+01:00

Although considered by Vascologists to be a borrowing from Latin sŏlum¹, Basque sor(h)o 'cultivated field; meadow'² is actually an Iberian loanword related to PNC *dʒʒǝlV 'plain, plateau'³ whose native counterpart is the archaic Lapurdian zar(h)o 'meadow'. This means PNC *ddʒ corresponds to an apico-alveolar sibilant /ś/ (Basque <s>) in Iberian but a lamino-alveolar /s/ (Basque <z>) in Vasconic.

This root is related to Eurasiatic *TSolV 'steppe, valley, meadow', reflected in Slavic *selo 'arable field' but which in other IE languages underwent a shift meaning to 'sea, lake'⁴: Greek hélos 'wet meadow, marsh', Old Indian sáras- 'lake, pond, pool'.
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¹ Borrowed into Basque zoru 'ground, floor'.
² With the Biscayan variant solo (B) 'field (prepared for sowing)'.

³ Bengtson proposed a different etymology from PNC *tʃʃHæɫu 'earth, ground, sand', which semantically doesn't fit.

⁴ For people grown up inland, large water extensions look like meadows.

The Amathus bilingual

2009-11-13T15:09:00.038+01:00

The other day I came across Cyrus Gordon's Evidence for the Minoan language (1966). The first chapter deals with the Greek-Eteocypriot bilingual inscription from Amathus, Cyprus.

The Greek text reads as follows:

Η ΠOΛIΣ H AMAΘOYΣIΩN APIΣTΩNA APIΣTΩNAKTOΣ EYΠATPIΔHN

Hē polis hē Amathousiōn Aristōna Aristōnaktos eupatridēn
Translation:

The city of the Amathusians (has honoured) Ariston (son) of Aristonax, of noble birth.

The transliteration of the Eteocypriot text is like this:

A-NA MA-TO-RI U-MI-E-S[A]-I MU-KU-LA-I LA-SA-NA A-RI-SI-TO-NO-SE A-RA-TO-WA-NA-KA-SO-KO-O-SE KE-RA-KE-RE-TU-LO-SE TA-KA-NA-[?-?]-SO-TI A-LO KA-I-LI-PO-TI

Gordon reads it as Semitic, but I think this is an Aegean language, because we find words like lasana, cognate with Etruscan rasna 'Etruscan', and mukla-, cognate with Etruscan mexl- 'people, nation'.

My reading:
Ana mator-i umesa-i mukla-i lasa-na Ariston-ose Artowanaksko-ose kera-keretul-ose taka-na [?][ta]so-ti alo kail-i po-ti

Translation:

In the city of the Aegean Amathusians, Ariston (son) of Aristowanaks, of precious birth, [...] in the tomb (was) laid into the earth with (his) father.

Eteocypriot glossary:

alo 'to lay'
ana 'the'
(a)po- 'father'
kail- 'earth' ~ Etruscan cel-
kera-keretul- 'precious birth'
lasa-na 'Aegean' (collective of lasa- 'man') ~ Etruscan rasna
mator- 'city'
mukla- 'people' ~ Etruscan mexl-
taso- 'tomb' ~ Etruscan tus 'bed'
-(t)i 'locative/ablative suffix'
-na 'collective suffix'
-ose 'genitive suffix' ~ Etruscan -s
wanaksko 'king' ~ Greek (w)ánax

I thank my colleague Marco Moretti for having suggested me most of these meanings.

Vasco-Caucasian - an ancient language macro-family

French corme 'service berry' (updated)

Pedirle peras al olmo

The real "Nostratic" language (updated)

Basque begi 'eye'

Medieval Latin *dēvetum

Latin silva 'forest, wood' (updated)

Latin vitrum 'glass; woad'

Latin lolium 'ryegrass'

Tin and gold

Etruscan *netś-, *nethś- 'entrails'

Is really Tartessian a Celtic language? (updated version)

The Atlantidic substrate (updated version)

Basque legar 'gravel, pebblestone'

Etruscan viscri 'penis'

Celtic *talu- 'front, forehead'

Germanic *sajwi- 'sea, lake'

PIE *dom- 'household'

Latin fulcrum 'prop, support'

Latin pariēs 'wall'

Beware the troll!

Initial labials in Basque

Initial pl-,fl- in Basque

¿A dónde me llevas?

Una calle no es una arruga, sino un arroyo

Catalan turó 'hill'

Dwellings

Vultures and bears

Ribs and bones

Clay and chalk

PIE A and PIE B

Boats and vessels

A Semitic 'horse' Wanderwort

A confusion of rhotics

A bad purchase

Iberian anthroponyms

De las setas a los labios

Knives and ploughs

Desenredando el ovillo

Some wrong Spanish etymologies

Strawberry fields forever

El roble y el haya

Cuencas y cuencos

Crackpots in action

Words for 'sea'

Vasco-Caucasian loanwords in Proto-Uralic

Paleo-Eurasian and the Paleo-European substrate

Celtic and IE substrates

Celtic *dūno- 'fort'

The lentil

The fox

More about pigs

Hair and wool

The house

Two roots for 'earth'

Sea meadows

The Amathus bilingual

Etruscan netś-, nethś- 'entrails'