Linguaphiles

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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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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To the memory of my friend, prof. Leo Klein (1927 - 2019)

The Greek language has a “powerful substrate lexical layer related to local natural conditions and high culture of the peninsula’s early civilization,” “not from native Greek lexics, but from the words of SOME OTHER non-Greek language of a people for whom Greece was a native nature, whereas for the Greeks it is not." L.S. Klein, Ancient Migrations, 2007.

Which "SOME OTHER"?? Why is the Odyssey full of Finnic words (See https://new-etymology.livejournal.com/25788.html) ?

Why the name Olympus, the highest mountain peak (in Greece - 2917 m, in Cyprus - 1952 m), is perfectly explained from Fin. ylempi - 'the highest'? ( -mpi being the superlative ending). Why does Macedonia correspond to Est. mägedene - 'mountainous' ?

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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.

LANGUAGES ACROSS OCEANS: http://www.paabo.ca/uirala/4A.whalers-languages.html



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Hello! I've recently started learning Karelian language just for fun. Any other Karelian speakers here? I have small problems with pronounciation. How is "čč" supposed to be different from "č"? Because it would be pronounced "tsh" or "tš", and it's kinda difficult to double that. Is it something influenced by Russian alphabet, or what?

have you heard about the Mokshan logographic script? [Moksha is a language of the Mordvinic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages.]
i have found some information on Wikipedia, but not elsewhere, so i'm not sure if it really was a fully developed writing system... maybe it was just a set of tamgas? anyway, it seems very interesting. the Wikipedia article has ( Collapse )

[x-posted to LΦ, F-U & my LJ]

when i learned that in Fenno-Ugric languages, after a number the Singular form of the noun is used and not the Plural, i [and i was not alone] found it strange but after a while i realized that the number itself brings enough information and there is no need to underline it by putting the noun in Plural form.

and i had another thought, also. i realized that Polish [and probably Slavic in general] system is even more "strange". we put the noun in different grammatical case, depending on what number stays before it.
e.g.:
1 krowa = 1 cow [Sg. Nom.]
2-4 krowy [Pl. Nom.]
5-21 krów [Pl. Gen.]
_2-_4 krowy [Pl. Nom.]
__ krów [Pl. Gen.]

[it depends also on the grammatical gender of the noun, but it's another issue]

i know there are languages that do not have grammatical number, so i'm not asking about them now, i'd just like to know what grammatical number and case is used after numbers.

P.S. thanks to everyone who answered my question concerning Hebrew and wrote many interesting notes!

latinAnyone have any knowledge about what the leading institutions/organisations in Finno-Ugric research are (worldwide)?

kiitos / köszi / tänan / giitit itt / etc

(actually, that last one's italic)