Alexander Octavia wrote:
I'm going to summarize the weakness
I've found in De Vaan's work. As indicated by its title, this is a Latin
dictionary where other Italic languages and Proto-Italic itself play a minor
role. Secondly, in the introduction he sticks to the *outdated* Italo-Celtic
hypothesis, in despite of being rejected by his colleague Matasovic.
Although he says his is a dictionary of
"inherited lexicon" (thus excluding Greek loanwords), he includes some likely
Etruscan borrowings, often with a shameless laziness. For example, he thinks
Latin ferrum 'iron' < P Italic *ferso-m might be a loanword from some
Phoenician dialect, because the word is attested in Semitic (e.g. Akkadian
persillum).
In
fact, this is a Wanderwort of ultimate Luwian origin from the root *bherg´- 'to
shine', introduced to Italy by the Etruscans.
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Ishinan's reponse:
It is well known that a sound
argument is always
defended with good reasoning
and supported by verifiable facts and quotations from reliable sources
that lend credibility to any theory. I am afraid the following article you have provided us with,
fails to meet adequately this essential requirement.
I will explain myself :
In my opinion the article in question
is full of unforgivable errors which I would like to point out. An
example would be the following quote from the article:
"Akkadian has been recognized as the
source of words for 'iron' in other Semitic languages such as , Ugaritic brdl, Hebrew and Phoenician brzl, Aramaic przl, Epigraphic
South Arabic frzn , Classical Arabic firzil. (Artzi 1969:268-269)"
A red flag is immediately
raised. First, there is no such word as firzil with the meaning of
'iron' in Classical Arabic. Instead firzil means
fetter (BTW fetter made of any material). I have no idea
why this is mentioned in the article.
The correct word for 'iron' in
Classical Arabic is brtl (the medial
letter is an emphatic t.) In addition, the article fails to mention
the Ancient Egyptian partar for 'iron' where the
final letter is a case of (r/l).
Second, Akkadian is not the source of
words for 'iron' but rather the Canaanite 'brdl'.
Holger Pedersen (1867-1953), a Danish linguist once wrote in his
famous 1931's book "The Discovery of Language" about the so-called "Semitic
languages". According to him (and linguists in general), the Hebrew, Aramaic and
Akkadian languages had all undergone significant linguistic degeneration. Only
Old Arabic, due to its relative isolation in the Arabian peninsula, remained
closer to the old stratum of the "Semitic" form of the language and therefore
was closer to the Canaanite/Ugaritic.
Thirdly, your suggestion
that " In fact, this is a Wanderwort of ultimate Luwian origin from the
root *bherg´- 'to shine', introduced to Italy by the
Etruscans" would lead us to
think of an Indo-European root (see Pokorny Etymon: 139-40 *bherg-,
*bhreg- IE *bherk- to shine; bright, white)
In this case, I would invite
you to look into the older Semitic root "brq" Ugaritic 'brq'.
UGARITIC SOURCES:
KTU 1.3:III.26: In the beginning of
the Ba`al myth the god is proud to be the only one among gods and man who
understands the lightning (brq)
At first, goddess `Anatu expresses some
skepticism and invites him to prove his point by putting his thunderbolt in the
sky, and kindling his flash.
KTU 1.3: III.26-28 , 1.4 :V.9;
1.5:V.7f
Hence, as the master of the rainy season Ba`lu
bears the epithet of Rider on the Clouds. He is the only god able to keep
(brq) lightening in his hands.
Later on, Athiratu admits that Ba`lu is the only
one able to let loose the lightning and the god Ilu recognizes that
Ba`lu is the only one able to poise the lance, (a metaphor for the
thunderbolt). According to some texts Ba`lu had seven thunderbolts (brqm) eight storehouses of
thunder.
See also Hebrew 'brq' , Classical Arabic 'brq':
to shine, gleam, glisten, lightning, bright, brightness
PS. To my knowledge, a
semantic relationship between 'iron' and 'shine' has never been established.
But perhaps you can suggest one.
Best regards,
Ishinan
August 3rd, 2012