Re: Meaning of Aryan: "mountain people"?!

Thank you for the new data, Francesco.

Quite strangely,
you are both contesting my proposal
and providing data that support it.

When it comes to &ar-ab with &ayin,
I consider this root &_r "mountain"
to be a super-cognate.
And it's not the same as ?_l "high" with ?alif.

I also consider that Hurrian people :
whose cuneiform name can be read
either *hur or *har are also from this root.
and as you can see &ayin is reflected here as <h>
?alif would be zero.

Arnaud

============

----- Original Message -----
From: Francesco Brighenti
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 12:52 AM
Subject: [Courrier indésirable] [tied] Meaning of Aryan: "mountain people"?!




--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "fournet.arnaud"
<fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:

> [Kishore Patnaik had asked:]
>
> > Can any one throw the economic interpretations of the word
> > Aryan?
>
> From the root H2_r "mountain" hence *ar-yo 'the mountain people' :
> Taurus people.
>
> Most people around Anatolia are :
> - the flat-land people : pala-ite
> - the sea-people : Ahhijawa, Yawani
> - the mountain people : Ar-ya

I'm not aware of the existence of a term "arya/aryo", used to
indicate mountain people, in any ancient Anatolian language.

There's an Iranian scholar, Jahanshah Derakshani, who wrote a paper
to demonstrate that "Aryans" (N.B.--*his own* ancestors!) were
present throughout the ANE since the dawn of history. He makes an
assumption which is very similar to yours:

http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/pdfs/traces_of_aryan.pdf
<< Besides the numerous appellatives and adjectives
constructed with an ar[+ an illegible phonetic symbol]- element
which means 'master', 'strong', 'brave', 'sublime', 'the most
distinguished' in the Aryan and Indo-European languages
respectively, one could also mention El.Akk. ari 'roof' (Elamite
loanword?), the Hier.Luw. ari- 'raise', *ariyatt(i)- 'elevation,
mountains', HUR.SAG Ariyatti 'Ariyatti-mountains' = 'the Iranian
Highland?', URU Ariyatas^s^a 'town Ariyatas^s^a' as well as the
Hitt. ariya-, Lyc. erije- 'raise' and Arm. ari 'stand up!' (~ IE *er-
'raise, elevation'). It is therefore possible that in the Old Aryan
[sic] arí- bears the meaning 'high' or 'highlander'. >>

The only Anatolian language in which a word formed on the stem ar-
has the meaning 'mountain' seems to be Luwian; however, C.Luw
*ariyatt(i) 'elevation, mountain' is considered by Melchert an
action noun to ari(ya)- 'raise; check, restrain' (?), which is
cognate to Hitt. ara:i- 'raise; check, restrain' and Lyc.
erije 'raise, levy'. The underlying verbal root ar-/er- 'come to,
arrive at (etc.)' reflects the IE verbal root (sorry, laryngeals
omitted) *er ~ *or- ~ *r.- 'move (intr.), stir, raise' -- cf. Puhvel
at <http://tinyurl.com/37q3g4>. Nowhere is it stated by the above
authors that the Anatolian root also means 'mountain'. If you want,
there is also Hitt. aru 'high', probably an ancient IE u-stem
adjective derived from the same root; yet neither Hitt. aru
means 'mountain'.

So were Anatolian "arya/aryo" the Taurus people, really??

> The same root gives the word &ar-ab : from the mountains of Hejaz.

I thought the term Arab, whose etymology is admittedly still
obscure, had been best explained as a Semitic term related to
nomadism. What have *mountains* to do with it? And, do you mean to
say that the term Arab is derived by an *Indo-European* root
meaning 'mountain'?

Regards,
Francesco