Re: [tied] La Cucaracha

From: João Simões Lopes Filho
Message: 5910
Date: 2001-02-04

Oh, thanks
Yes blatta > *brata > Portugueses barata
And about dragonflies, crickets and grasshoppers? Any PIE word?
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2001 3:21 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] La Cucaracha

"Blatta" (somehow related to Portuguese barata, I suppose) looks like a loan or a late coinage with its b- and double -tt-. It also means 'moth', AFAIK. Slavic terms for the cockroach are variants of the same Turkic loanword (tarakan, torokan, karakan, karakon, Polish karaczan influenced by karacena 'armour' < Latin coriacea, which is also the source of English cuirass). I think the damn insect was a synanthropic importation from subtropical countries. Perhaps the IEs didn't know it at all, the lucky beggars.
 
Terms like German Küchenschabe 'kitchen-scraper' or Welch chwilen ddu 'black beetle' are modern formations. English cockroach is an adaptation of Spanich cucaracha (imitative?). Perhaps French cancrelat is an onomatopoeic echo of something from the same source, influenced by cancre 'crab'; cf. Dutch kakkerlak, Polish karaluch ('oriental cockroach'). Phonetic iconicity is commonplace in names of crawling things.
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2001 3:41 PM
Subject: [tied] PIE cockroaches

Is there any PIE word for cockroach?
 
Let's start the list...
 
Latin BLATTA
Greek SILPHE:, TILPHE:
English COCKROACH
Germanic ?
Slavic ?
Celtic ?
Sanskrit ?
Avestan ?