According to ANCIENT EGYPTIAN, A LINGUISTIC INTRODUCTION, by
Antonio Loprieno, 1995, the word for house in Old Egyptian (3rd
Millennium BC) was *paruw , with a long a. (pages 12-13)
Depuydt's FUNDAMENTALS OF EGYPTIAN GRAMMAR, 1999, says on page 19
that the "ancient" pronunciation of the r symbol was "r (rolling?)"
Another symbol, "G1", or "vulture" is usually transcribed as "3" and
pronounced as "a" or "e", but the ancient pronunciation, according to
page 18, was "r or l". This was not the symbol used in the word for
house, though.
The Eygptians called the Lybians either Ribu or Libu, but that is the
vulture letter again.
Orel's HAMITO-SEMITIC ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY lists *par- "house,
enclosure"
"Berb *far(r)- 'enclosure'
Eg pr 'house'
ECh *par 'hangar': Mig para"
Bomhard's THE NOSTRATIC MACROFAMILY
page 253
"Proto-Nosrtratic *p[h]ir-/*p[h]er- (?) 'house'
A. Indo-European: Hittite (nom.-acc. sg.) pí-ir (from *p[h]er-)
'house', (dat. sg.) pár-ni, pár-na (from *p[h]r.-), (dat. pl.)
pár-na-a; Luwian (dat. sg.) [p]ár-ni 'house'; Hieroglyphic Luwian
parn- 'house'; Lycian prñna- 'ouse', prñnawati 'to build, to
construct'; Lydian bira- 'house'.
B. Afroasiatic: Egyptian pr 'house; Coptic -por, per- 'house'.
C. Dravidian: Tamil purai 'house, dwelling, small room', pirai 'shed,
factory', puraiyan 'house, cottage, dwelling made of leaves', puraiyul
'house'; Malayalam pura 'house (esp. tatched house, hut, room'; Kodagu
pore 'thatched roof'; Tulu pore 'roof, ceiling', pura 'house'.
There is another root with similar sound and similar meaning. p. 249:
Proto-Nostratic *p[h]al-/*p[h]el- 'settlement, settled place'
Proto-Indo-European *p[h]lH- 'citadel, fortified high place
Sanskrit pur rampart, fortress, town
Greek polis
Lithuanian pilis
Proto-Finno-Ugrain *palg3 'village, dwelling-place
Dravidian: palli hamlet, hermitage, temple (esp of Buddhists and
Jains), palace, workshop, sleeping place, school room
Malayalam palli hut, public building
Telugu palli hut ; palle "small village"
Proto-Altaic *palaga city, town, village
Mongolian balgasun city, town, village
Old Turkish balïq city, town village
I would add German Burg, Swedish borg, English borough, and Thracian
-bria.
A similar root to the above? is German Berg,
Gaulish -briga
All of these words seem to be connected to a fort or house on a hill?
http://www.delphi.com/paleolinguistic
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