Greek hēméra 'day' (updated)

 



In Greek mythology, Hēméra was the primeval goddness of the day. From this word and Armenian awr 'day', Indo-Europeanists such as Mallory-Adams¹ reconstruct an IE protoform *h2ēm-ər- 'heat (of the day)', which I link to Semitic *ħamm- 'to be hot; warm'², with the voiceless pharyngeal fricative ħ corresponding to the "laryngeal" h2. 

The IE protoform belongs to what I call "IE B"³, corresponding to the "IE A" protoform *səm-/*səm-ro- 'summer'⁴, whose initial s- is a consequence of the sound shift I call Fournet's Law, by which a post-velar fricative becames fronted to an alveolar articulation point.

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^{1 J.P. Mallory & Q.D. Adams (2006): The Oxford Introduction to PIE and the PIE World.  
2} Also cognate are Hurrian am- 'to burn' and (possibly through an Etruscan intermediate) Latin amāre 'to love', amor 'love'.

³ Mostly represented in Eastern languages, mainly Greek-Armenian and Indo-Iranian, but occasionally also Celtic.

⁴ The ablaut form *sem- usually quoted in dictionaries isn't attested anywhere.

Medieval Latin *dēvetu- 'obstacle, prohibition' (updated)

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

The Latin verb is cognate to Celtic *wet- 'to speak' (Old Welsh guetid, Middle Welsh dyweddy 'speaks'), from which developped the form *woto- (Middle Welsh gwadu 'to deny', Old Breton guad 'denial')'⁴. From these forms and Hittite uttar 'word', Indo-Europeanists reconstruct an IE root *wet(H2)- 'to say, to forbid'⁵.

However, in Romance the meaning 'to impede' is usually represented by Latin dēfendere 'to move away; to reject'⁶, whose feminine participle is dēfēnsa- (Catalan devesa, Spanish dehesa 'meadow, pasture (usually fenced)').
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¹ The meaning 'obstacle' is reflected in the Basque compound gernu-debeku (Bazt, L) 'urine retention', whose first member is gernu 'urine'. 
² The corresponding Basque forms are debetatü (Z), debekatu (G, HN, Bazt, L, LN), debekau (B), bedekatu (B), bedekau (B) 'to forbid', for which Rohlfs proposed an etymology from *impedicāre 'to impede', which I consider semantically inadequate. 
³ Reflected in Spanish vedar 'to forbid, to impede', whose participle vedado 'reserve (of land)' has replaced deviedo in the modern language.  

⁴ R. Matasović (2009): Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. p. 418.

⁵ Similar to *wed- 'to raise's one voice', attested in Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Tocharian, Greek and Indic.
⁶ Which in some languages (e.g.  French défendre) also developped the meaning 'to forbid'.

Celtic *dra(:)wā 'ryegrass' (updated)

Celtic *dra(:)wā 'ryegrass' is found in dialectal French droue, druive as well as other similar forms in Gallo-Italic (e.g. Lombard droga). Brittonic languages (Welsh drewg, Breton draok, dreok) reflect a suffixed form *drāwā-kā 'darnel (Lolium temulentum)', also found in Late Latin dravoca, continuated in Gallo-Romance *dravocāta > French dragée 'forage'¹ (not to be confused with its homonymous 'bonbon' or 'tablet')². 

IE cognates of the Celtic word are Germanic *tarwō, found in Middle Dutch tarwe, terwe 'wheat' and English tare 'weed; vetch' (also used in translations of the Bible to name a type of ryegrass, probably darnel), as well as Baltic *dirwā 'field', Slavic *derevna 'arable field, village'. From these forms, Indo-Europeanists reconstruct a protoform *derH2u- 'a k. of wild cereal', which in my opinion belongs to the lexicon of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, with a semantic shift in some languages due to the adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic, a process called acculturation.

This 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 an ejective *t’. 
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¹ The French word for 'darnel' is ivraie, from Latin ēbriaca (f.) 'intoxicated'. There's also dialectal Basque libraka (R), with agglutination (proclisis) of the definite article. 
² X. Delamarre (2008): Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, p. 147-148.

Etruscan *netś-, *nethś- 'entrails'

 



From two bilingual inscriptions we know Etruscan netśvis, netśrac are respectively equivalent to Latin haruspex 'adivinator'¹ and 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'.

The Atlantidic substrate (updated version)

The German linguist Theo Vennemann¹ is 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.

Germanic *sajwi- 'sea, lake'

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 IMHO Mongolian *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'

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' > Greek despótēs. Many Indo-Europeanists like 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 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 pariēs 'wall'

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-.