From: gpiotr@...
Message: 10
Date: 1999-09-09
> I'm looking for examples of Sanskrit or Pali Buddhist terms that have > cognates in modern, non-indic languages. > > The first one that comes to mind is Sutra: > Eng.: sew > Lith.: siulas, siuti > > I also wonder to what extent other such terms are based on Dravidian > borrowings. > > Thanks, > Ted >*sj(e)uH 'sew' is a well-known root, with cognates in most branches of IE. The initial *sj- is occasionally simplified by j-dropping (more or less as in English suit), hence e.g. Latin su:tor 'cobbler' (in my own Polish, by the way, a cobbler is called szewc < sjuH-ik-o-s, and he sews is szyje < sjuH-je-ti). Sutra comes from suH-tro- or suH-tlo-, meaning 'something with which you can sew' > 'thread' > (metaphorically)'a string/list [of rules]'. No Dravidian influence here. Other well-known but quite spectacular equations include yoga = yoke = Gk. zygon = Slavic igo, related to Latin iung-, and therefore to join, junction (English via French). The title Buddha itself is purely IE, from *bheudh-'wake' and represents the derived adjective *bhudh-tos 'awakened', but you probably know that much. There are many Dravidian loanwords in learned Old Indic, too, e.g. paNDita 'educated', cf. Telugu paNDa 'knowledge' [capital letters here stand for postalveolar/retroflex consonants]. Piotr