Linguistic Society of America A Systematic Tabulation of Indo-European Animal N

Linguistic Society of America A Systematic Tabulation of Indo-European Animal Names: With Special Reference to Their Etymology and Semasiology Author(s): Eugene Gottlieb Reviewed work(s): Source: Language, Vol. 7, No. 3, Language Dissertation No. 8: A Systematic Tabulation of Indo- European Animal Names: With Special Reference to Their Etymology and Semasiology (Sep., 1931), pp. 5-48 Published by: Linguistic Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/522087 . Accessed: 01/07/2012 00:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Linguistic Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Language. http://www.jstor.org ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS Abbreviations and symbols used in this work are as follows: = Aeolic = Albanian = Aramaic Armenian = Assyrian = Attic = Avestan = Balto-Slavic = Bulgarian = Celtic =Chinese = Cornish = Cymric = Czech = Dutch =Danish = Doric = English = Finnish = French = Germanic = Greek. = German = Gothic = Hebrew =Homeric = Hungarian =Icelandic =Indo-European =Ionic =Irish =Italian = Latin Lett. LG Lith. Magy. ME MIr. MLat. MLG NP OCS1. OE OF OHG OIr. OLG ON OPr. OS Pol. R Roum. Serv. Skr. Slav. Slov. Sp. Sum. Swed. Thrac. Turk. UG Ukr. Umb. Lettish =Low German = Lithuanian Magyar, Hungarian = Middle English = Middle Irish = Middle Latin = Middle Low German =New Persian = Old Church Slavonic =Old English =Old French =Old High German = Old Irish Old Low German = Old Norse = Old Prussian = Old Saxon Polish - Russian - Roumanian = Servian = Sanskrit =Slavic - Slovak - Spanish Sumerian = Swedish = Thracian =Turkish =Upper German = Ukrainian =Umbrian 5 Aeol. Alb. Aram. Arm. Ass. Att. Av. Baltosl. Bg. Celt. Chin. Corn. Cymr. Cz. D. Dan. Dor. E Finn. Fr. Gc. Gk. G Goth. Hebr. Hom. Hung. Icel. IE Ion. Ir. It. L LANGUAGE DISSERTATION NO. 8, I931 * (asterisk)- a>b = b<a = a/b>c = 0gr. non-existing, reconstructed form a becomes b, or a is cognate to b b derived from a, or b is cognate to a a before b becomes c. zero grade 6 INTRODUCTION Purpose: The purpose of my investigation is the analysis of certain IE animal names with special reference to their root determinants and their semasiology. Range: The IE animal names treated in this work are some of those domestic, farm, and common non-domestic animals with which the Indo-Europeans were best acquainted from earliest historical times. The better an animal species is known, the better it is domesticated, the more it is utilized, the more varied its nomenclature will be, since more of its qualities and characteristics are known upon which its nomenclature is based. For instance, the swine, the first animal species dealt with in this work, received its IE names because of a great number of physical characteristics, biological functions, activities, and modes of utilization peculiar to this animal. Under nomina propria I classified those IE animal names to which no definite semasiology could be attached. That, however, does not mean that further etymological investigation will not or can- not succeed in finding a satisfactory semasiological connection for the nomina propria as well. The animals treated here, I believe, show sufficiently the proced- ure of my investigation; further animal names I intend to treat in a similar fashion at some future time, since the methodology will always remain the same. Methodology: From linguistic periodicals and etymological diction- aries I collected a vast material of cognates relating to animal names in IE languages. I had to separate those cognates which were not of IE origin but of late divisional development. The IE cognates I scru- tinized according to their definite relation to an assumed IE root, clas- sifying them as follows: a) Sure and safe derivatives; b) sugges- tive but problematic derivatives; c) dubious and obscure derivatives. 7 LANGUAGE DISSERTATION NO. 8, I93I I gave preference to cognates of different linguistic units, thus ap- proaching with greater certainty the IE root, which, however, at that stage of my investigation was arrived at by phonological means only. Semasiological treatment then followed. With the IE root as astart- ing point, I surveyed those cognates which expressed a similar psycho- logical conception and looked for the conception befitting the animal in question. Thus I arrived at certain semasiological conclusions, which then in turn were united in a more comprehensive group of descriptive terms. The first section of my bibliography lists a number of books seem- ingly unrelated to my topic. This, however, is not the case; the majority of the animals treated in this work are domestic animals. The spread of animal names, especially of names denoting domestic animals, can offer important data to the sociological function of ani- mal domestication and human migrations, and thus render valuable service to cultural history. The method of luring, utilizing, and domesticating animals, and the art of using fire were those qualities which determined the relatively feeble human being's place in nature and determined his rise to culture and civilization. Victor Hehn was the first to utilize the science of comparative phi- lology for purposes of domestic-animal research. Animal name cognates, primary common roots, and loan words are those branches of linguistic science which offer the fairest indication as to the time of the appearance of an animal name in the respective linguistic fami- lies, and also point out the right source in case the word originated outside of this family. So for instance, when names of the horse, sheep, cattle, cow, etc. show identical primary roots in IE languages we are safe in concluding that these animals were known to the IE linguistic unit before its division. Here, however, the following possibilities are to be considered: a) Did wandering tribes take along with them their domestic animals, or simply the art of domestication ? b) The territory of a cultured people is usually of smaller expanse than the geographic expansion of an animal genus. c) Culture expands the territory of a people and reduces the territorial range of the animal genus. Where culture pro- ceeds, the animal recedes. The territory of a cultured people can be arbitrarily defined or restricted, while that of an animal can not; therefore there is no reason to believe that domestication will deter- mine the domicile of a people, since domestication could have taken place independently in different territories and at different times. d) 8 GOTTLIEB, INDO-EUROPEAN ANIMAL NAMES While excavations do throw light upon a definite prehistoric phase, they do not always show with which people to associate this phase, and therefore animal skeletons connected with IE peoples and territo- ries might belong to previous autochthons. e) Geological and palaeo- zoological time-spans are very vague and elastic in nature; to use them as time scales for cultural intervals between men in relation to animals belongs par excellence to the realm of natural history. Sociological and 'kulturgeschichtliche' aspects have much to do with animal nomenclature. Cultural history and etymology should be complementary to each other. If we know that pork was taboo among many orientals, and that beech and oak forests were lacking in the East, we find good reasons for our contention that IE porko- 'pig' has only European cognates, whereas *sas, probably denoting 'the wild pig', is general IE. The fact that cognates of wool, and *peko- are general IE confirms our findings that ouis 'sheep' is the IE name for an animal domesticated in IE times. On the other hand, if we know that E bitch, G Hindin (the feminines of dog) are relatively late formations, we might conclude thatthe dog, though domesticated by Indo-Europeans, was not held in the same esteem by them as were other animals of early domestication, since horse, cattle, and sheep do show this early distinction by gender since IE times. Important animals have a great variety of names for every distinct subspecies: cow, bull, ox, calf, heifer; sheep, ram, wether, lamb; horse, steed, mare, foal, stallion. Similarly early Skr. compounds like gopatis ' owner of cattle: man of power ', gvistis ' effort to obtain cattle: fight', gopah ' cattle guard: watchman' are evidence of the importance of cattle among the early Hindoos. Ross and PJerd are two parallel synonyms for horse in German; the first is IE, the second Gc. or poss- ibly Late Latin in origin and may have originally referred to a new species of horse, or (more probably) to the horse in a new utili- zation. The distinction in nomenclature may also vacillate between a wild animal and its domesticated species; so, for instance, in the case ot ouis we know that this name referred to the domesticated uploads/Geographie/ 522087.pdf

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