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"Nature and the Physical
Environment. A large number of terms relating to
time, weather, seasons, and natural surroundings can be
reconstructed from the daughter languages, some of
which permit certain inferences about the homeland of the
Indo-European-speaking people before the period of migrations
took them to the different localities where they historically
appear. .......
When none of these runs through
the whole family, it would not be justifiable to infer
anything from them regarding the terrain of a hypothetical
original homeland of the Indo-Europeans."
According to him: The names for a
number of different trees
are widely enough attested to be viewed as Proto-Indo-European
in date. Hence,
general terms for tree and wood was deru.
The names for a number of
different trees are widely enough attested to be viewed as
Proto-Indo-European in date. The general term
for tree and wood was
deru-. The original meaning of the root was
doubtless to be firm, solid, and from it is
derived not only the family of English TREE
but also that of English TRUE. Note that the
semantic evolution has here been from the general to the
particular, from solid to
tree (and even oak in some dialects), and
not the other way around."
Further, the following etymological entries are usually
offered on this subject:
DEFINITION: Also
dreu-. To be firm, solid, steadfast; hence
specialized senses wood, tree, and derivatives referring
to objects made of wood.
1. Suffixed variant form
*drew-o-. a. tree, from Old English trow,
tree, from Germanic *trewam; O-grade
form *doru-. deodar, from Sanskrit
dru, wood, timber. (Pokorny deru- 214.)
TREE : O.E.
treo,treow "tree" (also "wood"), from P.Gmc.
*trewan (cf. O.Fris. tre, O.S.
trio, O.N. tre, Goth.
triu), from PIE
*deru-/*doru- "oak" (cf. Skt. dru
"tree, wood," daru "wood, log;"
Gk. drys "oak," doru
"spear;" O.C.S. drievo "tree, wood;" Serb.
drvo "tree," drva "wood;"
Rus. drevo "tree, wood;" Czech
drva; Pol. drwa "wood;"
Lith. derva "pine wood;" O.Ir. daur, Welsh
derwen "oak," Albanian drusk "oak"). Importance of the oak in
mythology is reflected in the recurring use of words for "oak"
to mean "tree." Slovenian: drevo, Danish:
træ , Norwegian: tre ,
Icelandic: tré , Icelandic:
tjara.
2. Variant
form *derw-. tar1, from Old English
te(o)ru, resin, pitch (obtained from the pine
tree), from Germanic
*terw-. .
However, according to Classical Arabic sources,
"drw"
(d : an emphatic
dad) is a species of trees of sweet
odor growing mostly in Yemen. Some say it is the
btm (1),
from which the bitumen is
extracted; others refer it to the
terebinth-tree. Drw
also stands for the great oak growing in the Yemeni
mountains, and the cancamum tree growing
in Arabia (Yemen).
Further, from the tree "drw"
tar is extracted.
As for the word for oak tree, the Classical Arabic term
is simply" 'iyk. The word occurs four times
in the Qu'ran referring to the oak forest
dwellers.
(Q.XV.78, Q.XXVI.176,
Q.XXXVIII.12, and Q.L.13)
Compare
with:
OAK O.E. ac
"oak tree," from P.Gmc. *aiks (cf. O.N. eik, O.Fris., M.Du.
ek, Du. eik, O.H.G. eih, Ger. Eiche), of uncertain origin with
no certain cognates outside Gmc. The usual I.E. base for "oak"
(*derwo-/*dreu-) has become Mod.Eng. tree. Used in Biblical
translations to render Heb. elah (probably usually "terebinth
tree") and four other words. The O.N. form was eik, but
there were no oaks in Iceland so the word came to be used
there for "tree" in general. Any of numerous monoecious
deciduous or evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Quercus,
bearing acorns as fruit. The durable wood of any of these
trees or shrubs. Something made of this wood. Any of various
similar trees or shrubs, such as the poison oak. Any of
various brown shades resembling the wood of an oak in color.
Danish: egetræ, Dutch: eik,
Norwegian: eik, Swedish: ek .
CONCLUSION: There is great merit
in the comparative method which leads to the assumption of the
previous existence of an antecedent common to IE languages.
However, the existence of identical words for
"tree" and its variant "tar," along with the word for oak
outside IE languages, undermines the prevailing notion
of being exclusively IE.
Therefore, it is safe to conclude that any
inference of a hypothetical original homeland of the
Indo-Europeans, based on situations like
*deru, ought to be reconsidered.
Various JPEGs of dictionary entries on
the subject matter can be viewed for scrutiny by the
members by clicking on the following URL:
Ishinan
January 24th, 2008
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FOOTNOTE:
(1) BITUMEN
1460, from L. bitumen "asphalt,"
probably, via Oscan or Umbrian, from a Celtic source
(cf. Gaulish betulla "birch," used by Pliny for the tree
supposedly the source of bitumen). Bituminous is from 1620
.Middle English bithumen, a mineral pitch from the
Near East, from Latin bitumen, perhaps of
Celtic origin.] . Du.: bitumen
Est.: bituumen, Fin.: bitumi , Fr. : butume , Ger.
Bitumen, Hung.:bitumen, It.: bitume, Latv: bitumens.
Lith.bitumas, Port.: betume, Roum. : bitum, Slov. bitumen,
Sp.: bitun, Swedish: bitumen.
ÉTYMOL. ET
HIST. Ca. 1160 betumoi « substance combustible
liquide » (Eneas, éd. Salverda de Grave, 6498 : Li betumoi a
tel nature : Là ou il est un po sechiez Ja ne sera puis
depeciez), forme attestée jusqu'au xiiie s. dans T.-L.; 1190
betume (Evrat, Genese, B.N., 12457, fo 16a dans Gdf. Compl.),
forme attestée jusqu'au xiiie s., Ibid.; xve s. forme bitumme,
bithume (Hist. s. et prof., Ars. 3515, t. 1, fo 101 ro,
Ibid.); xvie s. bitumen (Hug.); 1575 bitume (Belleforest,
Cosmographie universelle, Paris, II, 2135 dans Fr. mod., t.
25, p. 306 : une espece de Bitume); p. méton. 1841 « trottoir
» (d'apr. Esn.). Empr. au lat. bitumen « id. » (Caton, Agr.,
95, 1 dans TLL s.v., 2021, 75); [la date de 1549 donnée pour
bitume par les dict. étymol. s'applique au texte lat. de
Tagault cité dans Gdf. Compl., dont la trad. fr. est de 1618];
betumoi avec suff. d'a. fr. -oi (lat. -êtu) indiquant une
étendue.(source: Centre
National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales ")
However, one senses that etymologists, by using
terms like probably or perhaps are
rather tentative in their assumption. While factually,
the Arabic word btm for bitumen appears to be
a straightforward candidate, pointing to
a definite Semitic source for the
word. |