From: whitedawn
Message: 43532
Date: 2006-02-23
Dear Sirs,
If you need a scapegoat, OK, start with me. There has been only one post (the last one) where I made a slight digression by saying that IE and Semitic might have come from the same source. I do not remember I have ever been talking about proto-nostratic. I have no intention to “denounce” other topics here which are far more “doubtful”, and in a clear “disobedience” towards CYBALIST “regulations”.
In fact, my main subject is Serbian and its relation to other IE languages. Is the Serbian a member of IE family or not? If I understood well „CYBALIST is a forum devoted to discussing Indo-European (IE) linguistics and related topics concerning the history and culture of IE-speaking peoples.” I do not see that I have broken any of the CYBALIST key rules; therefore, I think moderators could reject my posts only in case of my “crank scholarship”. May be I am an uneducated snob and a crackpot but I assume such a qualification should have been based on some reliable indications and undeniable arguments.
I do not want to put moderators on “fire” again and I would not mind them neither express any reproach if they have rejected this post, although I believe they should have an opinion that is more autonomous. In the sequel of this letter, I am going to concentrate myself on a certain “roots” that had been recently discussed on this list: *ni-sed- (gn-sd > sd-gn) and *akW- (ghv- , lkw-), comparing them with the Serbian modern vocabulary1.
Please, observe carefully the next Serbian words and their meanings.
GN-SD/T:
Gon- and sta- are the syllables, which indicate exchange of the status of an object – movement and static position, stay and go...go and stay.
Nasaditi (nasad) – to put one object firmly on another, plantation, hatch (seat on eggs, an intermittent exchange of lying and getting up while hatching). Nazad – back ( Eng. back = Serb. beg, begnuti, bežati run a way?; pognuti bend; Serb. nagnati u beg (to compel someone to run a way, to pull back); a return to the starting (initial) position.
Gnezdo – nest, Sskr. niiDa (bird steadily returns to the nest, stay and go / fly away)
Nestati – to disappear, vanish; Ništa – nothing, nothingness AV naGkSyati (again, go and stay somewhere, hidden of course)
Nastati - arise, issue, come up, begin (now, stay and go. Move again after a period of static state. Serb. pogoniti (set up, launch, to start horses, car, engine) is the basis of the Serb. verb “početi” (begin = pogon?)
Gost – guest; Gazda – host (guests are coming and staying)
Kost – bone; Sskr. asthi (perhaps the bones left behind the guests).
SD/T-GN:
Mainly a static position with a slow, hardly visible movement (relaxing or pressing)
Stegnuti – constrict, press, squeeze; Stog – stock (of hay); Sadenuti – to arrange the hay; Zategnuti – tighten; Istegnuti – stretch, extend, elongate; Staklo – glass
Stignuti – get, come, arrive, reach ("the water reached the doorstep")
Stanje – state, condition, situation
Stanjiti – attenuate (Serb. utanjiti); Tanak – thin). Attenuate = utanjiti? A Serbian peasant would say “rakija je tanka” or just “utanjila je” (brandy is thin) in case of reduced concentration of alcohol. If we squeeze an object it is going to be thinner and thinner.
Stenjati – squawk, moan, groan, German stöhnen, Sskr. stanana; stighnoti mount, step up; pra-stigh /to step up, rise up; prestige, Serb. prestići, pre-stignuti)
Stena – stone
Steknuti (steći) – retrieve, earn, acquire, win, obtain, get, merit
GN-GN (reduplication)
An uninterrupted movement (going constantly)
Nositi – bear, bring, carry; Nos – nose; Noga – leg; from “g/na-gon” (Serb. nagon, impulse, impel, driving force)
Gaziti – trample, wade; Gasiti – slake, slack; Gušiti – smother
Guzati – a funny walk, waddle (like a goose); Gegati (coggle, totter) – move unsteadily, with a rocking motion (jumping > Serb. skok, skoknuti, skakati, skočiti /s-go-gna)
Guzica – (see above “gegati”) buttocks ("he goosed the unsuspecting girl"); Sanskrit puta; Serb. “batak” - upper part of the poultry leg and “patak” - a male duck (pa-tak > duck?); potok – brook; patak u potoku – duck in brook (ducks and water); butina – hip; in fact, butigna (biti-goniti > beat-go). Serb. obuti – to shoe (boot?)
Nizati – to array; Niz - sequence, row, array, series, chain. Sanskrit. nihina – Serb. nizina, nizak (low, vile, mean)
Znanje (mozak brain, mozganje, think over); actually “znanje” (knowledge) is “iz-gnanje” (ousting), i.e. those thoughts (Serb. misao, misliti) which brain (mozak) is able to “cast out” are the human knowledge (znanje). The literal meaning of the Slavic word “mozak” is “mind-out-caster” (um-zgna); here we could see that Latin “cogito” (think, collect) came from the same source as Serbian “znanje >z(g)na(g)ne” because Serb. “zgnati” also means gather, collect; Lat. cognitio (examination, knowledge /gna-gna).
GO-BI
Going and beating
Okolo (around) biti (beat) – oklopiti (armor), oglav (horse blinders), glava (head), globa (fine, forfeit, penalty). Okolo > oko (around).
Adj. široko – broad, panoptic (coming from Sur-oko, Sargon, Sur-rogan /Surozhskoe More, Svarga?); Sskr. suragaNa (a host of gods, a class or company of divinities). It seems that Sur-gna was the basis wherefrom noun oko (eye) and the adv/prep. oko (around) has been derived. Also, Sur-gna > šaren (motley, multicolored).
Kopati – dig, shovel. Oko-biti (beat around).
U/kopati - bury, entrench
Kob – ominous destiny; Koban – misfortunate, sinister, fatal
Kovati - hammer, coin, weld, forge (a clear association with above “beat around” – oko biti. Greek συγκολλώ (weld) is very close to Serbian “suknuti” (a sudden burst of fire; 3. sing. perfect suknulo). There is another Greek word with the same meaning as Serb. zaklopiti (zaklopio cover up, close up συγκαλύπτω; okolo biti?). Serb. kovan = coine? Kovan novac > coins (a metal piece of money); maybe, Greek ωκεανός “emerged” from the adj. okovan; obviously ocean is clearly related to Latin aqua
Okov – fetter, shackle; verb. Okovati, iskovati (bolstering a wooden barrel with metal rings to make it waterproof); barrel = Serb. bure?
Akov – an old Serbian measure for water (fluid); a conspicuous association to okov (see above)
Kupati – bath
Kvasiti – soak, drench; put an object into the water or pour liquid onto; oko bi/ti sta/ti > around beat stay/state; okvasisti (oko-bi-sta); actually put an object into the okov (vessel, tank) full of water. (Kvašenje = Deutsch waschen?)
Lokva – puddle, pool; li-okov (liti – pour); after a heavy rain all excavations were full of water and an ancient man understood it as if water had been “fettered”; in fact, water (liquid?) has been captured by a natural “barrels” (quarries) and precluded to move freely. Even the Eng. fetter could be in a close relation with “imprisoned” water.
Finally, horse is also “fettered” (horse-shoe) and thence could be the Lat. equus, French cheval, Italian cavallo, Spanish caballo (okov, kovalo fettered animal); similar shoeing of the bull-hoofs could be a reason for the name gov- (caw, govedo okovato / fettered)
Cordially,
Dušan Vukotić