From: Joe
Message: 28936
Date: 2003-12-30
>any
>
> Dan:
> > Puhvel just gives "Earth-Mother" with no further explanation.
> > 11th Enc. Brit (1910), however, gives:
> > "DEMETER Her name has been explained as (1) grain-mother,
> >from 'zeiai', the Cretan form of eat, barley, or (2) earth-mother,
> >or rather mother earth, 'da:' being regarded as the Doric form
> >of 'ge:'."
> > A quick look through Palmer's "Greek Language" doesn't shed
> >light on d-g in Doric dialects.doesn't
>
> Just as I figured. It's always some half-assed etymology that
> go into thorough detail. It's driving me nuts.Assaram".
>
> The reason why I mention it is because of a crazy idea I just had
> regarding the Minoan inscriptions. I'm completely convinced that
> the Minoan language is a related but seperate language to that
> of the "Etrusco-Cypriot" languages. I also suspect that while
> references to "Tyrrhenoi" seem to refer to Etruscans, "Pelasgoi"
> seems to refer to Etruscoid people who never left Greece and
> Asia Minor, both those that existed at the time in question, like
> the Lemnians, and former peoples, such as the Minoans. Of
> course, eventually Pelasgoi would apply to all non-Greek
> populations in Greece. Anyways, that idea gives a whole new
> spin on the Egyptian references to /prst/.
>
> Now, it seems that half of /de:-me:te:r/ is certainly Greek,
> meaning "mother". We infer that *de: means "earth" because
> of the chthonic function of the goddess, but if so, it doesn't
> seem very Greek. We can't just switch "g" with "d" and say
> "Voila!". Too presto change-o for my liking. So what does
> this have to do with Minoans then?
>
> There is a libation formula common to most inscriptions on
> Cretan libation tables. According to John Younger's fabulous
> site (http://www.people.ku.edu/~jyounger/LinearA/), it often
> starts off as:
>
> A-TA-I-301-WA-YA
>
> Because of alternations between 301-U-TI-NU and TE-U-TI-NU, it's
> clear that 301 is for TE. So we should read it as:
>
> A-TA-I-TE-WA-YA
>
> Now, if we analyse Minoan, for a speculative moment, along Etruscoid
> terms, the subsequent phrase that forms the following part of this
> recurring libation formula becomes clear:
>
> YA-SA-SA-RA-ME U-NA-KA-NA-SI
>
> It is to be read as /Assaram-e una kanasi/ "giving a libation to
> Assaram is the West Semitic derived goddess Asherah. We see thatdoesn't
> /-e/ marks the dative and we even sometimes find /una/ in a very
> Etruscanesque plural /una-r/ (PK Za 11,PK Za 12). Nifty!
>
> So if the entire phrase /una kanasi/ is written undivided, it
> seem unreasonable to analyse /ataitewaya/ as two words /atai/2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca
> "mother" (Etruscan /ati/) and /tewaya/. Interestingly, the latter
> word is written in other forms, sometimes /tewae/ (PK Za 11),
> sometimes /teuya/ (AP Za 1). I've long had an inkling to relate
> /tewaya/ above to /tan-i teu tinu/ (IO Za 6) or /tan-ar teu tinu/
> (IO Za 2.2). So there seems to be a word *tewa with unknown
> meaning. Up to now, I thought that it might be a loan from an
> IE language meaning "god". Hence /atai tewaya/ "mother of
> the gods". However, I just had a better idea. I think it means
> "to mother earth" (analysable as "mother earth-DAT").
>
> The whole libation formula would follow this idea with
> Etruscan correlations in parentheses and the intended Minoan
> pronunciation as follows:
>
> Atai tewa-ye, Assaram-e, una kanasi.
> To mother (ati) earth, to Assaram, a libation (un) given (cena),
>
> Ipinam-na sirute.
> For the holy one (fanum), [it] is done (Uni-as s'ela-ce).
>
> In apa-kHa.
> [And] it (in) has been offered (alpan "gift" + -cHe [passive]).
>
> I now suspect that *tewa means "earth" and that this is the
> origin of /De:-me:te:r/, a name partially translated from Minoan
> /Atai-tewa/ "Mother Earth". So I assume that the earlier form
> of /de:-me:te:r/ was /dewa-me:te:r/. Thus, *de: is a fossilized
> Pelasgian term for "earth".
>
> Am I crazy? :) Anybody have a better etymology of Demeter?
>
>
> = gLeN
>
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