Re: Old Dutch words

----- Original Message -----

From: Daniel J. Milton

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 9:42 PM

Subject: [Courrier indésirable] [tied] Re: Old Dutch words

--- In cybalist@... s.com, "ualarauans" <ualarauans@ ...> wrote:

> ......<fournet. arnaud@> wrote:
> >
> > it reads : olifant = slan
> It's Russian slon, probably < Turkic a[r]slan
>
******
I know there was confusion in parts of Medieval Europe between the
elephant and the camel, as strange large beasts in far off lands,
sometimes domesticated as beasts of burden,(Gothic 'ulbandus' "camel"
for example), but it's harder to see confusion of elephants with lions
(I take it the Turkish word refers just to the latter).
Dan

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I have noticed that some words referring to horses, donkeys, camels share quite the same pattern :

Tibetan rta horse

Chinese LuoTuo < *lata "camel"

Sumerian anshe or maybe better anthe < *?a + nat ?? "donkey"

Semitic ?atan "donkey" > Latin asinus

(t > s must be from Egyptian)

 

But I agree that a lion is fairly different from an elephant.

 

Arnaud

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