Linguaphiles

The English word climax has two seemingly incompatible meanings of "climax" and "orgasm". Yet, we should not forget that the word has not only a specific meaning, but also a more general, broader meaning, not of a 'specialized' term.

Let's illustrate this via an example: a person may have a profession of a lawyer - yet, within this profession there are many specialties: a judge, an arbitrator, a prosecutor, a notary...

The general meaning for the word climax is 'the highest point, the culmination.' But there are several applied, special, narrower meanings. Climax is the culmination of adulthood - yet, climax as 'orgasm' is the culmination of pleasure.

The etymologist is obliged to grasp a common semantic core, which allows different meanings to co-exist under one 'sound roof'.

I was once amazed that the Arabic word شراء [SHARA] means both “buy” and “sell” at the same time. And now I look at this calmly: both narrow, special meanings go back to the broader, general meaning: "to engage in trade."

Valeriy D. Osipov
Ph.D.

The Oxford Etymologic Dictionary (OED) considers Ego / I as if it were a self-standing word developed within the Germanic and 'Indo-European' languages with a mere meaning of 'I / me / self, myself':[Spoiler (click to open)]

I (pron.)
12c., a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *ek (source also of Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik), from PIE *eg- "I," nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (source also of Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source of French Je), Greek ego, Russian ja, Lithuanian aš).
Reduced to i by mid-12c. in northern England, later everywhere; the form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c. 1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. It began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/I

ego (n.) by 1707, in metaphysics, "the self; that which feels, acts, or thinks," from Latin ego "I" (cognate with Old English ic; see I); its use is implied in egoity.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/ego

местоим., укр. я, др.-русск. язъ, я (и то и другое – в Мстислав. грам. 1130 г.; см. Обнорский – Бархударов I, 33), ц.-сл. азъ ἐγώ, реже ѩзъ (см. Дильс, Aksl. Gr. 77), болг. аз, яз (Младенов 702), сербохорв. jа̑, словен. jàz, jâ, чеш. já, др.-чеш. jáz (совр. чеш. форма – с начала ХIV в.), слвц. jа, др.-пол. jaz, пол., в.-луж., н.-луж. jа, полаб. joz, jо.
Праслав. *аzъ отличается своим вокализмом от родственных форм, ср. др.-лит. еš, лит. àš, лтш. еs, др.-прус. еs, аs, др.-инд. ahám, авест. azǝm, др.-перс. аdаm, арм. еs, венет. еχо, гр. ἐγώ, лат. еgо, гот. ik "я". Наряду с и.-е. *еǵ- (гр., лат., герм.), существовало и.-е. диал. *eǵh- (др.-инд., венет.). Недоказанной является гипотеза о существовании *ō̆go наряду с *еgō на основе слав. аzъ и хетт. uk, ug "я" (Мейе – Эрну 342 и сл.; см. Вальде – Гофм. I, 395 и сл.). Не объяснена еще достоверно утрата конечного -z в слав.; весьма невероятно, чтобы она совершилась по аналогии местоим. tу (напр., Ягич, AfslPh 23, 543; Голуб – Копечный 147), а также чтобы долгота начального гласного была обусловлена долготой гласного в tу (Бругман у Бернекера, см. ниже). Более удачна попытка объяснения аzъ из сочетания а ězъ (Бернекер I, 35; Бругман, Grdr. 2, 2, 382), но см. против этого Кнутссон, ZfslPh 12, 96 и сл. По мнению Зубатого (LF 36, 345 и сл.), в этом а- представлена усилит. част. *ā, ср. др.-инд. ād, авест. āt̃, ср. также др.-инд. межд. ḗt "смотри, глядь!" из ā и id; Педерсен (KZ 38, 317) видит здесь влияние окончания 1 л. ед. ч. -ō; сомнения по этому поводу см. у Бернекера (I, 35). Для объяснения -z привлекают законы сандхи (Сольмсен, KZ 29, 79); ср. Бернекер, там же; И. Шмидт, KZ 36, 408 и сл.; Вакернагель – Дебруннер 3, 454 и сл.
http://www.classes.ru/all-russian/russian-dictionary-Vasmer-term-17126.htm

ich (Ger.), Εγώ [ego] (Gr.), ego (Lat.), io (Ital.), yo (Sp.), I (Eng.), jag (Sw.), я [ja] (Slavic)...

However, should one look beyond the hypothetic *constructions, established by the German philologists in the 19th Century, one would see an obvious Nostratic relation of the above words with the meaning of ' I ' to the following words with the meaning of ' 1 (one)':

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This is what happens when people randomly decide pronunciation. Plough is more commonly spelled plow now. There is a great video by Langfocus that explains the origins of middle and modern pronounciation. It may not have a rhyme but there are reasons including the one I mentioned above. If find it again I might post here. You can vent to me but remember I just speak English I did not create it. W
1

YULE, JUL, JULEN, JOULU, JÕULUD

The French, the British, the Germans, the Scandinavians and the Baltic Finns call Christmas with the following word that remains from pagan times: Yule (Eng.), Jul, Julen (Sw., Dan., Norw.), Jól (Icelandic), Joulu (Finnish, Izhorian), Jõulu(d) (Estonian, Votic) - allegedly considered to be a word 'of unknown origin': https://www.etymonline.com/word/yule .

Noteworthy, however, is that the followers of the Zoroastrian (Persian, Iranian) tradition use the same name when celebrating the winter Solstice: they call the longest and darkest night of the year as Shab-e Yalda, or Shab-e Chelleh (Çillə). [Spoiler (click to open)]In Zoroastrian tradition it is considered to be a particularly inauspicious night when the evil forces of Ahriman are imagined to be at their peak. One is advised to stay awake most of the night, to avoid any misfortune. People gather in safe groups of friends and relatives, and share their last remaining fruits of the past summer. The following day (the first day of Dae month) is a holiday. The word Yalda supposedly means 'the Birth' or 'to give birth'.

It is further comparable to:
[yuladu] يولد (Arab.), [yalad] יָלַד (Hebrew) - to give birth;
[hуlad] הוּלַד (Hebrew) - was born;
[yalud] יָלוּד (Hebrew) - newborn[Spoiler (click to open)];
[eled; yaldo] יַלדו ; יֶלֶד (Hebrew) - a boy, a child
– i.e. the infant Sun, which is 'born' each year at winter solstice).
Source: https://ich-neu-mon.livejournal.com/68150.html .

It is obvious that the Birth of the new Sun is exactly what the name of the holiday, the Yule, reflects.

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A word that does not have strong ties and roots in a language, having lost its primary meaning, becomes a simple 'nominal unit'. It falls out of the language system, turning into a dull nameplate, one of many in a long line of similar gray and rootless icons, similar to prison numbers on the backs of prisoners. And then the consideration of convenience and usefulness commences to play its role.

The 'nameplate' word is being brought into line with this requirement. It is 'cut' and 'polished' in such a way that individual sounds 'fly off' from it in splinters and further distance it from other words within the framework of one language, as well as the entire community of languages.

In Russian such words, for example, include the word КРОВ [КРОВ] ('roof') with the initial sound "K" - but the relation to the English word ROOF is not recognized by philologists of official linguistic schools.



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LUNCH - midday meal. Scholars explain its etymology as follows: 'Recorded since 1580; presumably short for luncheon, but earliest found also as lunshin, lunching, equivalent to lunch +‎ -ing, with the suffix -ing later modified to simulate a French origin. Lunch is possibly a variant of lump (as hunch is for hump, etc.), or represents an alteration of nuncheon, from Middle English nonechenche (“light mid-day meal”) (see nuncheon) and altered by northern English dialect lunch (“hunk of bread or cheese”) (1590), which perhaps is from lump or from Spanish lonja (“a slice”, literally “loin”). https://www.etymonline.com/word/lunch



However, LUNCH, being the mid-day meal, much more likely comes from:

launags (Latv.) - afternoon snack;
lȭnag (Livonian) - south-east; lȭnagist (Livonian) - mid-day meal;
lõuna (Est.) - south and mid-day meal;
lounas (Fin.) - south-west and mid-day meal;
lõunad, lõunaz (Votic) - south and mid-day meal;
lounad, loune(d) (Izhorian) - south and mid-day meal;
lounat (Karelian) - evening and main meal;
lun (Komi) - day and daylight;
lun-aǯ́e (Udmurt) - during the day.
http://www.eki.ee/dict/ety/index.cgi?Q=l%C3%B5una&F=M&C06=et

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The “beard” sticking out of the Egyptian pharaohs' chins is strikingly reminiscent of poturu, a cone-shaped “lip plug” made of bone or wood and inserted through the lower lip of everyone in a small Amazonian Indian tribe (self-name: Zo'é - 'we','us'- as opposed to non-Indians, enemies; external name - Poturu, in honor of the distinguishing attribute of Zoe; the tribe counts to only 160 people, and contacts with the tribe were only established in 1987); poturu is inserted when a child reaches the age of 7-9 years (which is one of the most important ceremonies, and a rite of passage for children); poturu is gradually enlarged throughout one's life; most adults wear poturu of approx. 18 cm in length and 2.5 cm in width: https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/zoe .

Most of the South American Indians do not have beard and other face hair. Poturu for Zo'é likely serves as a 'substitute' of what they do not have, but have seen on some foreign teachers long time ago - and wished to have, too.

And - the Egyptian pharaos seem to have belonged to the same beardless race as the Indians (also having the very same distinct face characters)!

And what else is the POTURU other than Ital. POTERE, Port., Sp. PODER - the POWER ?!

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Below is the text of my presentation at the 2nd International Conference "The Great Eurasian Partnership: Linguistic, Political and Pedagogical Aspects", arranged to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Moscow Oblast State University (MGOU).

Abstract. The similarity of the sound of a number of names of the same birds between Asian and European languages testifies to more ancient linguistic connections and influences than it is commonly believed when establishing lexical borrowings.

Keywords: names of birds, Arabic, language classification.

Words get their birth and die out. The life expectancy, the vitality of each word depends on the need for it and on its ease 'in circulation'. Words are like coins, money in circulation. The latter developed from shells and skins to metals, then to coins, later - to paper bills, thereafter - to electronic money.



So are the words. All of them have 'a service life' and then get replaced with more convenient and useful ones in new circumstances and new reality.

The 'long-livers' among the words are conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, pronouns and articles. They are the ones which are most in demand, and therefore are present in any texts. They inevitably become the most convenient to use, since over the centuries they have managed to be 'polished' in millions of lips - like pebbles polished by waves and sand. These words are always the shortest, easy to pronounce. And the brevity and simplicity of a word are the apparent signs of its antiquity.

Valeriy D. Osipov, PhD

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Novgorodian birch bark in Finnish dialect, 11th Century - written in Cyrillic:




1. юмолануолиінимижи
Jumola nuolin imizhi
EST: Jumal noolnud inimesi.
ENG: God 'arrowed' people ( = taught people the word, the speech)*.
RUS: Господь пронзил стрелами людей ( = обучил, научил людей слову, речи)*.

2. ноулисъхянолиомобоу
noulise han oli omo bou
EST: noolja, ta oli oma poeg.
ENG: Arrow-shooter, he was His son.
RUS: Стрельцом ("метателем стрел") был Его Сын.

3. юмоласоудьнииохови
Jumola soudin iiohovi
EST: Jumal sõudnud iia-hoovi.
ENG: God rowed to the eternal yard (heaven).
RUS: И отбыл Господь на небеса (досл., "священный двор").

The author of the decryption is Andres Pääbo - who also decrypted hundreds of Venetian runic inscriptions :
http://paabo.ca/papers/pdfcontents.html
http://paabo.ca//veneti/VENETILANG2014.pdf

* ...The word is what is sent, a message from person to person. It is no coincidence that the symbol of the word in the Vedic religion was an arrow.
Valery D. Osipov, PhD. 'The single language of humanity.' Moscow. Concept. 2016.
https://www.e-reading.club/chapter.php/1018511/10/Osipov_-_Edinyy_yazyk_chelovechestva.html

nool, gen. noole, part. noolt (Est.), nuoli (Fin., Karel.), nooli (Izhora), njuolla (Saami), nal (Erzia, Moksha), nölö (Mari), ńe̮l (Udmurt), ńe̮v (Komi), ńoᴧ, ńal (Khanty), ńāl (Mansi), nyíl (Hung.), ńi (Nenets, Enet.), ńī (Sekulp.), ńié (Kamas.), ńej, nej (Mator.) - an arrow;
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nyelv (Hung.) - language, words.