LAW PUNDIT Monday, October 11, 2004 10/11/2004 06:18:00 PM [Home]
A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros is a blog on European political affairs by the following bloggers:
Nick Barlow: What You Can Get Away With
Iain Coleman: Mr Happy
Edward Hugh: Bonobo Land
Scott MacMillan: Scotty Mac
Scott Martens: Pedantry
Doug Merrill
Tobias Schwarz: Almost A Diary
Jurjen Smies: No Cameras
Mrs Tilton: The 6th International
Matthew Turner: Matt T
David Weman: Europundit
Technorati shows 374 links from 316 sources.
Scott Martens above asks for some linguistic help on alleged non-European words in Germanic - here is our analysis of terms which allegedly have no Indo-European roots:
It is alleged that the German word Waffe and the English comparable weapon have no Indo-European root. This just shows the extremely poor research and thought prevalent in mainstream linguistics. The Herkunftswörterbuch (Etymological Dictionary) of Sebastian Baumgärtner, Area Verlag, 2003, indicates that the terms wapen, wafen etc. can be traced back to Gothic wepna and Old Norse vapn. That is as far back as he gets. But if we look to e.g. Latvian, which along with Lithuanian are the oldest still spoken Indo-European tongues, we find the words vaba "pole, stake" and vabina "pole, stake" (diminutive form). So it is clear that German Waffe and English weapon trace back to the use of a pointed stick as a weapon. That the linguists do not look to Baltic for their etymologies is one of the great riddles of mainstream scholarship.
The German term Schwert as English sword is a fairly modern word found in Old English as sweord. A possible origin is found in e.g. Latvian svarst- meaning "to swing to and fro in one's hand". Since swords are not indigenous to the Baltic, this explanation is tenuous but shows that an Indo-European origin is certainly not excludable, given the possibilities.
The English word sea is found in German as See (pronounced zayh) and finds similar terms for lake in Baltic e.g. eze-r "lake".
German Ufer for "bank, shore" finds its comparable in Baltic upe "river", which of course consists of both the water and the banks. The shift from p to f is much in evidence in Europe from North to South.
German Sturm (English storm) are found in North German stur (also stuurs in Dutch) and German stör- meaning "commotion, disturbance", but in Latvian one also has the root sadrum- meaning "to grow gloomy, to darken".
German Sühne "atonement", pronounced "Zueh-ne" has its comparable in Latvian zve-re "oath".
German stehlen, English steal, seem similar to Latvian sadal- "divide by distribution" but also "assessment".
English thief and German Dieb seem similar to Latvian dabuo "to get".
German Knecht "servant" we find in English as knight (i.e. a servant of his lord) and knicken in German means "to bow, knee down, kneel".
German Volk "people, folk" we find in North German Pulk and Latvian pulk-, pulc- "a mass, an assembly of people, gathering" to which we have related dissimilated Latvian terms such as pil- meaning English "fill, full", showing again the p to f shift.
German Adel "nobility" has its comparable in German edel "noble" and the Latvian cel- pronounced "tsel-" meaning "high, raised, above". In other words, the root goes back to an original ts- or dz- type of sound.
The same can be said for German Zeit "time" and Latvian Gait- "the pace of things, the passage of time".
Well, I do not want to belabor the obvious. Mainstream linguistics is still stuck in the 18th century insofar as it has not accepted the fact that Indo-European language came from the East and that of course is where we should then look for Indo-European roots.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 06:18:00 PM
A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros - European political affairs
A Fistful of Euros is a blog on European political affairs by the following bloggers:
Nick Barlow: What You Can Get Away With
Iain Coleman: Mr Happy
Edward Hugh: Bonobo Land
Scott MacMillan: Scotty Mac
Scott Martens: Pedantry
Doug Merrill
Tobias Schwarz: Almost A Diary
Jurjen Smies: No Cameras
Mrs Tilton: The 6th International
Matthew Turner: Matt T
David Weman: Europundit
Technorati shows 374 links from 316 sources.
Scott Martens above asks for some linguistic help on alleged non-European words in Germanic - here is our analysis of terms which allegedly have no Indo-European roots:
It is alleged that the German word Waffe and the English comparable weapon have no Indo-European root. This just shows the extremely poor research and thought prevalent in mainstream linguistics. The Herkunftswörterbuch (Etymological Dictionary) of Sebastian Baumgärtner, Area Verlag, 2003, indicates that the terms wapen, wafen etc. can be traced back to Gothic wepna and Old Norse vapn. That is as far back as he gets. But if we look to e.g. Latvian, which along with Lithuanian are the oldest still spoken Indo-European tongues, we find the words vaba "pole, stake" and vabina "pole, stake" (diminutive form). So it is clear that German Waffe and English weapon trace back to the use of a pointed stick as a weapon. That the linguists do not look to Baltic for their etymologies is one of the great riddles of mainstream scholarship.
The German term Schwert as English sword is a fairly modern word found in Old English as sweord. A possible origin is found in e.g. Latvian svarst- meaning "to swing to and fro in one's hand". Since swords are not indigenous to the Baltic, this explanation is tenuous but shows that an Indo-European origin is certainly not excludable, given the possibilities.
The English word sea is found in German as See (pronounced zayh) and finds similar terms for lake in Baltic e.g. eze-r "lake".
German Ufer for "bank, shore" finds its comparable in Baltic upe "river", which of course consists of both the water and the banks. The shift from p to f is much in evidence in Europe from North to South.
German Sturm (English storm) are found in North German stur (also stuurs in Dutch) and German stör- meaning "commotion, disturbance", but in Latvian one also has the root sadrum- meaning "to grow gloomy, to darken".
German Sühne "atonement", pronounced "Zueh-ne" has its comparable in Latvian zve-re "oath".
German stehlen, English steal, seem similar to Latvian sadal- "divide by distribution" but also "assessment".
English thief and German Dieb seem similar to Latvian dabuo "to get".
German Knecht "servant" we find in English as knight (i.e. a servant of his lord) and knicken in German means "to bow, knee down, kneel".
German Volk "people, folk" we find in North German Pulk and Latvian pulk-, pulc- "a mass, an assembly of people, gathering" to which we have related dissimilated Latvian terms such as pil- meaning English "fill, full", showing again the p to f shift.
German Adel "nobility" has its comparable in German edel "noble" and the Latvian cel- pronounced "tsel-" meaning "high, raised, above". In other words, the root goes back to an original ts- or dz- type of sound.
The same can be said for German Zeit "time" and Latvian Gait- "the pace of things, the passage of time".
Well, I do not want to belabor the obvious. Mainstream linguistics is still stuck in the 18th century insofar as it has not accepted the fact that Indo-European language came from the East and that of course is where we should then look for Indo-European roots.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 10/11/2004 06:18:00 PM
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