[tied] Re: obscure languages - Kaskian, Hattic,

Glen wrote

> It would seem that *Tawru- and *`aTtar- are reconstructed for Proto-

Semitic.

> Since Proto-Semitic must surely have occured some time before the

appearance

> of Assyrian, it is reasonable to conclude that the transfer of these
> mythological themes across the Middle-East was well underway even in
> prehistory.

and

> As for the origin of the word, I feel that Semitic *Tawru- is a

word

> borrowed
> from elsewhere. I've suggested that it came from Proto-Hattic *Launu
> (Hattic /taru/ "storm god") with an initial lateral fricative,

providing the

> seed for the "lion" word as well.

Ineresting. Glen, does this mean that you don't subscribe to a Proto-
Hurrian orifgin for the word for Bull. I seem to remeber from the
archives some research that was suggesting a Caucasic origin for this
word (and also for the words for wine - find in Karvelian, IE,
Tyrrhenian and elsewhere. If agriculture was a Caucasic invention
(as it was first pioneered in the area out of which Hurrians are
later attested) then it is quite possible that Hattic, Semitic,
Kartvelian, Sumerian and IE all came to accept such words as they
accepted the "gifts" of agriculture.

Interested in your thoughts

Regards

John

>
> I feel that the word *`aTtar- was adopted a little later (c.5000

BCE)

> via Tyrrhenian *xastora which was in turn borrowed from Late Mid
> IndoEuropean *xëhëstérë (> *xsté:r) before syncope took place. The

word

> is derived from *xëh- (> *xah-) "to burn, glow". The word would have
> originally signified both Venus (the morning/evening star) and the
> goddess herself. A subsequent semantic shift caused IE *xsté:r to

mean

> simply any "star". I suspect that the Egyptian name of Hathor is

also the

> product of borrowing via Tyrrhenian but it then would appear that

it has

> been cleverly reanalysed in native terms as "Horus' house".
>
> Is this satisfactory?
>
>
> - gLeN
>
>
>
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