Re: [tied] The Chicken and the PIEs

I remember to read a long time ago in a book about Celts that the Celtic word "cerc" could be loanword from Scythians.

Latin gallus : gallina : pullus

Greek alektryon : alektoris

Germanic hanon : hannja

Usually words for "rooster "and "hen" are onomatopeic, or mean "singer", "crower".

It will be useful to verify if IE words for "chicken" influenced or were influenced by words other wild Galliform birds, as quail, partridge, pheasant, grouse, ptarmigan, capercaille, etc.

Joao SL

Rio

----- Original Message -----

From: Christopher Gwinn

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Friday, October 13, 2000 8:46 PM

Subject: [tied] The Chicken and the PIEs

I was wondering if anyone on the list had thought about the domestication of the chicken and the origins of PIE. It is often said that the domestic chicken arrived rather late on the scene in comparison to the domestic horse, the domestic dog, the domestic cow, etc.

It is believed (based on a recent DNA test by Japanese scientists) that all modern chickens are genetically descended from a species of wild fowl first domesticated in Thailand and Vietnam perhaps around 6000 BC. That the creature soon made its way north is seen in Neolithic chicken remains discovered at the mouth of the Yellow River in China around 5500 BC. We see the chicken heading westward from remains disovered in Pakistan around 3250 BC (or sometimes said to be 2000 BC). Chicken bones appear in Egyptian tombs in 2000 BC.

My question is this: where the Proto Indo Europeans aware of the chicken and were they responsible for its spread into Europe, or did the animal spread after the breakup of PIE?

There is an interesting agreement amongst the Indo-Iranian and Celtic branches - from the two opposite ends of the IE spectrum (note the k- in the satem languages):

Old Irish Cercc, "hen" (not a Latin loan; Latin has instead Pullo or Gallus)

Perhaps Gaulish Cercit[-], Cercenus, Cercion and Cercola (personal names), cercius / circius (? glosses)

Indic krka-vaku "rooster"

Avesten kahrkatat "rooster," Persian ka:rk "chicken," Ossetic kerko

Pokorny has the word come from *Kerk, from *ker- "rough tone" (used to describe an animal's cry) which also is the root behind words meaning "raven" in Italic and Germanic.

-C. Gwinn