The world's first civilization was in Sumer.
In Sumerian, we have "kar", which means "quay, wharf, wall, dike
(kâru)". There is also "kalam" which means "land" "esp. of the land
of Sumer as distinguished from "kur", foreign countries." Also,
"kar-lil" means "temple woman". "kur" is translated as "land, mountain."
Here we see similar words being used for temple, wall, and mountain.
In BEGINNING HITTITE we notice a city named Hurma, a city named
Carchemish, a city named Kurustamas, Sumerian KUR for "land, country".
In Greek we have kalybe, "hut, cabin." We have "kara" for "head,
top, summit, mountain castle". Here again we see the same word for
mountain and castle. "Keramos" for "prison". "Kleision" for "hut,
stable"."Klisia" for "hut, tent, cabin; couch, company of guests." Here
again we see the same word being used for tent, hut, and house. "Klitys"
for "slope, hillside." Here again we see the same root for hill and
house. "Koryphe" for "top, summit, crown of the head."
We have "kharax" for "pointed stake, pole; pale; palisade, fortified
camp". "Kharakoma" for "palisaded fort, wall." "Khermadion" for
"field-stone". Compare with "yard". Here is an even closer analogy:
"Khortos" for "fence, enclosure, cattle-farm; pasture; fodder, food."
This calls to mind Punic Qart for city. "Khora" for "space, room, place;
dwelling-place; locality; station, post-station; district, region,
territory, country, land; field, farm, estate." The next one may be
from a root "khor". "Khosis" for "a heaping up, raising a mound." Cf.
"kurgan."
Now let's look at Hebrew. "Khel" for "outer fortification,
bulwark, wall, rampart." We have too many town names starting in "Khel"
and "Khal" to enumerate. "Qorah" for "beam, shelter, house." Here is
an important one:
"Qir" for "wall (of a house or town; rampart, fortress, walled town.'
Note that, again and again, the same word means house, wall, fort and
town. "Qiryah" for "town, city." "Qereth" for "city, town" "Kur" for "to
dig out, pierce". "Kor-Ashan" for "name of a town in Simeon."
"Kalmad" for "a district in Mesopotamia". "Kalneh" for Ctesiphon.
"Kalnoh" for "a city in Syria." "Kar" for "pasture, meadow" . "Karah"
for "to pierce, dig, excavate." Isn't this how one builds a house,
palace, fort or city?
Now let's look at ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF SCOTTISH-GAELIC.
"Gearraidh" for "the pasture-land between the shore-land and the
moor-land (Heb.); from N.
gaerði, fenced field, garth. "Goirt" for " a little field of corn,
croft, Ir. goirtin, gort, garden, cornfield, O. Ir. gort, seges, W.
garth, enclosure, Br. garz...Lat. hortus; Gr. khortos, straw-yard".
"Cailbhe" for " a partition wall". "Caladh" for "a harbor". Cf. Sumerian
word for "quay." "Carn" for "heap of stones, cairn". Gk. "kranos" for
"rock". "Carragh" for "pillar stone". "Cathair" for "a city" Br. kaer
Lat. castrum, fort.
"Ceall" for "church". Cf. the words kirk, church, and Kirche. "Cill"
for a church.."used in place names" . "Clach' for "a stone". Norse
hella, flat stone. "Clachan" for kirk or kirk town. "Cro" for "a sheep
cot, pen" W. craw hovel, pig-stye Br. kraou stable The Norse kró,
small pen. "Croit" for "hump, hillock". "Cuile" for "an apartment where
stores are kept,...Gr. kalia, hut, Skr. kulaya, hut, nest
And now Buck. "Goth. gards ('house, rarely 'court'): ON garðr
'yard, court....Skt. grha- the usual word for house: Av. garada-
'cavern', and prob. Goth. gards 'house, court...Skt. çala- 'house,
stall, hut" Cf. Indian cities ending in -garh. Under "City, town" we
find Br. ker, ChSl. gradu, S.Chr. grad, Russ. gorod...Grk. kore, NG
khora, "khora" for "country, place". Khorio for village. For
"Village" we see Skt. "grama" (compare word for house!), Br. keradenn"
Here is a good one: "ChSl. gradu, SCr, grad, Russ. gorod (ChSl. also
'castle, garden')" Here again we see words for yard, court, house,
palace, village, fort and city all connected. For "Boundary" we see Br.
harzou Sw. grans Pol. granica Av. karana
Next, let us look at the HAMITO-SEMITIC ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY.
*ger- town
Sem. *gir- town Hbr. 'ir
ECh *gyar- house, village Dng ger Mig ger
Jegu ger, Mubi gir Bid geeru Jegu geer
Cf. partial reduplication in Mig geger village
Here again we have the same word being used for house and village.
*ker- dwelling
Sem. *kary- town, village Ug qr-t, qry-t, Hbr qirya, Aram (Syr)
Qeri-t, Arab qary-at, SAr qr
Jib sire-t
ECh *kyar- house Smr keri
OMot *ker- house, dwelling Ome kera
"A morphonological variant of *kor- "house, place"
*kor- "house, place"
Sem. *kur-an- villages (pl) Arab qur-an-
WCh *kwar- hut Krk kwaro
Cf. partial reduplication in DB kukor 'stone wall
CCh *kwa-kwar- "town"
ECh *kwaru- "place"
LEC *kor- block
Rift *kor- Brick house
*kur- mountain
*kora'- "field"
WCh *kwaHar- "farm"
*kil- "fence"
WCh *kil- "fence"
Cf. Brm kwal "house" Bks kyl "place"
LEC *kel- "compound, fence"
Cf. also ECh *kul- "hut, town"
*horas- "mountain"
Sem *hurs- rock, mountain
Now let's look at Bomhard's THE NOSTRATIC MACROFAMILY
Proto-Nostratic *gur-/*gor- "to stand out , to jut out, to project"
Russian gran' border, brink, verge
Proto-Kartvelian *gora- "hill, mound"
I think Bomhard gets it all wrong and mixes up the same root in a
half dozen different forms.
Proto-Nostratic *k[h]aw-/*k[h]ew- "to swell, to inflate, to grow, to
increase"
Old Icelandic hår high
Lithuanian Kaukara hill
Arabic kara to heap up
Proto-Nostratic *k'al-/*/k'el- "to lift, to raise up, to make high, to
elevate; lifted up, elevated, high; highest point, top"
Old Icelandic kleif ridge, cliff
Danish (dial.) kol, kolle hill
Old English clud rock, hill
Arabic kulla highest point, top, summit, apex
Proto-Nostratic *gyir-/*gyer- "to enclose, to gird"
Sanskrit grha-h house
Greek khortos enclosed place
Albanian garth hedge
Latin hortus garden
Gothic gards house, family
Old Church Slavic grad@ "city"
*ghordhos "fortified place, walled enclosure"
Egyptian d_ri "to constrain, to enclose, to fortify, enclosing wall
Telugu cera prison, imprisonment
Kui ker- to fence
Konda ker- to close, to shut (as a door, box etc.), to build a wall
(enclosure)
Sumerian gîr "girdle"
Proto-Nostratic *ky[h]ily-/*ky[h]ely- "to rise, ascend, to raise up"
Greek kolonos hill
Latin collis hill
Lithuanian kalnas hill, mound
Hittite kalmara hill
Proto-Nostratic *q'wur-/*q'wor- "edge, point, tip, peak"
Sanskrit giri-h hill, mountain
Albanian gur rock
Hittite (acc. sg) gur-ta-an "citadel) PLEASE NOTE THIS ONE AGAIN! It's
like Punic Qart
Hebrew keren horn, hill
Arabic karn horn, top, summit, peak (of a mountain)
Ethiopic kardu hill
Egyptian q33 hill, high ground, high place
Coptic koie field
Demotic Qr shore qrr3 embankment, shore, hill
Malayalam kuricci hill country
Proto-Altaic *kurgan "a fortified place"
Mongolian qorga fort, fortress,; shelter, enclosure
Old Turkish qurgan castle, fortress
Sumerian kur mountain It also means "country"!
And, finally, let's look at ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INDO-EUROPEAN CULTURE.
Under Fort we see
*bhergh- "height-fort"
OHG fortress
Goth baurgs city, town Here again we see mountain, fortress and
town.
"Certainly belonging to this are Grk (Homeric) pyrgos "town, fortress'
and Arm burgn 'town', however, both are phonologically unexpected, i.e.,
the Greek form should have been **parkhos and the Arm **baryjn and it
has been widely assumed that these have borrowed the term from a poorly
attested IE language such as Pelasgian which was credited to the
inhabitants of Greece before the arrival of the ethno-linguistic Greeks.
Cf. also OLat fortus 'strong, hard, Lat fortis 'strong, hard', OInd
brmhati 'fortifies', ...The alternative possibility that this word has
been borrowed from a non-IE source is suggested by similar words in Near
Eastern languages, e.g. Urartian burgana- 'bulwark, fortress, Syriac
burga tower." Perhaps Indo-Europeans such as Hittites, Philistines,
and Mitanni brought it to the Middle East, instead.
"Earlier suggestions that the pur indicated the citadels of the Harappan
culture which were destroyed by the Indo-Aryans hold little currency
today as the Vedic and other descriptions make a very poor fit with the
archaeological evidence for massive rectangular brick citadels and all
the other aspects of urbanism attendant in the Indus citadels. It has
even been suggested that the Old Indic descriptions are accommodated far
better by the evidence of Bronze Age forts in Central Asia, an area
which has been regarded as the staging area for later Indo-Aryan
movements south. In Homeric Greek the term polis-ptolis means 'city',
e.g. polin Troien 'the city of Troy' which in both Homer and in the
archaeological record was clearly a fortified citadel. Baltic forts
were build of earth and timber palisades."
Other words for fort, house, hill, and town are interchangeable too.
OIR dun fort
Wels din~dinas 'fort' (from *'hill')
OE dun down, moor, height, hill, mountain
MDutch dune sandy hill
OE tun enclosed place, homestead, village (origin of modern "town")
OHG zun fence, hedge
also Latin funus "burial (?from *burial hill)"
OInd pur wall, rampart, palisade puram 'wall, fortress, city
Lith pilis fort, castle
Grk polis city, citadel, state or country
"A fortiied enclosure has been argued to be a diagnostic feature of
Proto-Indo-European culture which spread through Europe with the
expansion of the Indo-Europeans at the end of the Neolithic, i.e., c the
fifth-fourth millennium BC. This argument, an integral part of the
'Kurgan solution' to the Indo-Europan homeland proble, presumes that the
Indo-Europeans were a warlike society who formed military aristocracies
over the populations upon whom they imposed themselves."
"The specific evidence for the spread of Kurgan fortifications
rests with the appearance of stone-built citadels that are found north
of the Black Sea, west around the eastern Balkans and on into Anatolia,
e.g., mikhaylovka, Ezero, Troy, which has been presented as a
circum-Pontic development under the aegis of IE chieftains....The
earthen and timber-built fortresses such as Sintasha that appear in the
Bronze Age in the Asiatic steppe and forest-steppe maybe ancestral to
the types of forts indicated in Indo-Aryan literature.
"In the west the earliest likely referent to the *dhunos found in
the Insular Celtic languages are the hillforts which appear by the later
Bronze Age (c 1200 BC) and continue through the Iron Age and, in some
regions, into the early medieval period."
http://www.delphi.com/paleolinguistic
http://www.delphi.com/prehistory
http://www.delphi.com/indoeuropean
http://www.delphi.com/nordichistory1
http://www.delphi.com/ancientnordics
http;//www.delphi.com/truthseekers8