Etymology: Earth

[Abu Bishr]

Hi All

Does anybody know the origin of the word "earth"? In Afrikaans it's called "aarde", in Arabic أرض (“land”, or “earth” with definite article) pronounced as "arD", in Hebrew “ertz” if I’m not mistaken. Now, it appears to me that there is a connection between these words, and that they must come from a common stem. Does anyone know what that stem might be, or is it just coincidence?

I also think that in some of the European languages, "earth" is called "terra" or something like. I don't think this has a connection to "earth" except if we rearrange the letters. So what do you think?

 

[linguist786]

I always had the idea in my head that "earth" came from Arabic.

I checked on this, but it's still a bit unclear I think.

 

[Outsider]

Well, if your source is right the word goes back all the way to Proto-Indo-European. English didn't borrow it from Arabic.

I also think that in some of the European languages, "earth" is called "terra" or something like. I don't think this has a connection to "earth" except if we rearrange the letters. So what do you think?

Terra is what it's called in Latin, and all languages derived from it.
As far as I know... perhaps Romanian uses a different word -- yep, but they also say terra.

Remember also Gaia, in Greek (Ge in modern Greek, apparently).

P.S. It's Daear in Welsh (related to Terra?) Can you think of a prettier name for a planet?

 

[Alijsh]

Webster:

Etymology: Middle English erthe, from Old English eorthe; akin to Old High German erda earth, Greek era

It has nothing to do with Arabic.

 

[badgrammar]

I always assumed it was from German, Erde?

 

[OldAvatar]

Well, if your source is right the word goes back all the way to Proto-Indo-European. English didn't borrow it from Arabic.

Terra is what it's called in Latin, and all languages derived from it.
As far as I know... perhaps Romanian uses a different word -- yep, but they also say terra.

Remember also Gaia, in Greek (Ge in modern Greek, apparently).

P.S. It's Daear in Welsh (related to Terra?) Can you think of a prettier name for a planet?

Romanians do use Terra for planet Earth, but that's a neologism.
But Romanian language has another word, ţară, meaning country, land, countryside which is a direct herritage of Latin Terra. The old Romanian name for kingdom used to be, also, Ţara (tsara).

 

[OldAvatar]

Hi All

Does anybody know the origin of the word "earth"? In Afrikaans it's called "aarde", in Arabic أرض (“land”, or “earth” with definite article) pronounced as "arD", in Hebrew “ertz” if I’m not mistaken. Now, it appears to me that there is a connection between these words, and that they must come from a common stem. Does anyone know what that stem might be, or is it just coincidence?

I also think that in some of the European languages, "earth" is called "terra" or something like. I don't think this has a connection to "earth" except if we rearrange the letters. So what do you think?

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=earth

 

[jazyk]

And pământ, believe it or not, comes from Latin pavimentum.

Jazyk

 

[Whodunit]

In German, it is "Erde." As you may see, it is very closely related to the English "earth." So, let me check what my etymological dictionary of the German language (Duden Herkunftswörterbuch) says (translated and explained by myself):

The Proto Germanic noun MHG erde, OHG erda, Goth. aírþa, Eng earth, Swe jord is based on IE *er[t-, --] "earth" with related in other IE languages, comp. e.g. Gre érā "earth" (éraze "(turn) to dust"), OIce jorfi "sand[bank]" and W erw "field." OHG ero "earth" uses the same root. – The word used to be a designation for soil (comp. Black Earth, wet soil [referred to as "wet earth" in some languages]) first, then for the ground (e.g. ground floor [referred to as "earth floor" in some languages]). Moreover, "Earth" is the mainland, on which the people live, as opposed to "Heaven" and is eventually used for our planet.

MHG = Middle High German
OHG = Old High German
Goth. = Gothic
Eng = English
Swe = Swedish
IE = Indo-European
Gre = Greek
OIce = Old Icelandic
W = Welsh

Hope it helps.

 

[elpoderoso]

Well, if your source is right the word goes back all the way to Proto-Indo-European. English didn't borrow it from Arabic.

Terra is what it's called in Latin, and all languages derived from it.
As far as I know... perhaps Romanian uses a different word -- yep, but they also say terra.

Remember also Gaia, in Greek (Ge in modern Greek, apparently).

P.S. It's Daear in Welsh (related to Terra?) Can you think of a prettier name for a planet?

In Irish I believe it is Tir (or that may just mean land) and apparently Tir is related to Terra, so I would guess (with no knowledge of linguistics ) that the Welsh is related itself to Terra.

 

[sarcie]

In Irish, "Tír" means land or country, "domhan" is Earth or the world.

 

[Outsider]

Well, terra can mean "earth" or "land".

 

[elpoderoso]

Well, terra can mean "earth" or "land".

I knew that, I just wasn't sure if ''Tir'' had the two meanings.

 

[Abu Bishr]

Hi All

Thank you very much for your contributions. I found this wikipedia article which also asks if there is a possible link between the Indo-European and Semitic roots for "earth" and concludes that it is uncertain as to whether the two are linked and that it might just be a coincidence.

Coincidence or not, I still find this very interesting, because in my layman's view it might very well be that both language families inherited their stems (for "earth") from a distant but common ancester.

I wonder what other language families have for the word "earth", to see if my hypothesis holds. I do admit that "terra" throws my hypothesis out somewhat, but then again with a little bit of "face lifting" and "re-arranging of the furniture" you could easily end up with "earth" . Anyhow, I'd be interested to see what non-Indo European & non-Semitic languages have as an equivalent for "earth".

 

[.Lola.]

Hi
here is the word "earth" in some Slavic languages:

Czech: země
Slovak: zem
Russian: zemlja
Polish: ziemia

In other Slavic languages it's going to be very similar.

 

[Tolovaj_Mataj]

Yes, indeed:
Slovene: zemlja

 

[Whodunit]

Okay, after all your posts and by help of some dictionaires and Wikipedia, I'm going to present you an overview about the different derivatives, cognates, and roots of the word "earth" in several language families:


For the Indian languages, the root is p-v-th, I think:

Gujarati: પૃથ્વી (privTii)
Hindi: पृथ्वी (privTii)
Marathi: पृथ्वी (privTii)
Nepali: पृथ्वी (privTii)
Bengali: পৃথিবী (privTii?)

T = aspriated t
ii = long i vowel
the r is vocalic, as far as I know

I can't read the other Indian languages, but the above look all very similar. As I don't know the words for the other languages, I don't want to conclude that the word is "privTii" throughout all Indian languages, particularly since the Urdu word is زمنن (zamiin?).
____

For the Semitic languages, the root is /-r-d(s), as far as I can tell (/ stands for an initial vowel):

Arabic: أرض (arD)
Hebrew: ארץ (arez)
(Kurdish: erd) not really a Semitic language, not sure if it's correct here
____

For the Slavic languages, the root is z(i)em-, concluding from the examples (but I'm not sure where the "l" on Russian and Bosnian comes from).
____

For the Turk languages, they use the root y/sh-r, I think (Chazzwozzer may elaborate upon this topic):

Turkish: yer
Kazakh: Жер (sher)
Azeri: yer
Uzbek: yer
____

For the Germanic languages, the root is Indo-European *er[t]-:

German: Erde (OHG: erda; MHG: erde)
Swedish: jord
Gothic: aírþa
Icelandic: jörðin (Old Icelandic: jorfi)
English: earth (OE: eorþe)
Dutch: aarde
Yiddish: ערד (erd)
____

For the Romance languages, the Proto-Indo-European root *ters- (to dry) is used:

Latin: terra
French: terre
Italian: terra
Esperanto: tero
____

In the Finno-Ugric languages (except Hungarian), the root maa is employed:

Finnish: maa
Estonian: maa
____

In Japanese, they use the characters 地球 (note the similar pronunciation!):

Japanese: 地球/ちきゅう (chikyuu)
Chinese: 地球 (di2 qiu4)
Korean: 地球/지구 (jigu)


There are still some other language families to treat (Amerindian languages; Aboriginal languages, Celtic languages), but I think that's enough for now. If you find mistakes, please correct them immedaitely.

 

[elpoderoso]

Hello Whodunit, Kurdish is not a Semetic language, but erd seems to fit in with the IE examples you have given.

 

[Whodunit]

Hello Whodunit, Kurdish is not a Semetic language, but erd seems to fit in with the IE examples you have given.

You're right, but it shares some similiarities with the Semitic languagues, as far as I know. Do you agree if I leave it in the column, but with a note that it's not a Semitic, but an Iranian language?

I don't want to have it among the Germanic examples, because that would be totally out of place, I think. Let's wait for others what they have to say.

 

[Outsider]

Japanese, Chinese, and Korean don't belong to a common language family, but I understand that you grouped them because they have a common Sprachbund (or Kulturbund?)

And I can't help mentioning Spanish tierra, too.

Thanks for the root of terr-.

 

[Whodunit]

Japanese, Chinese, and Korean don't belong to a common language family, but I understand that you grouped them because they have a common Sprachbund (or Kulturbund?)

Yes, I grouped them together because they share the same ... (I'd like to say root here, but that would not be correct), let's say characters. Sprachbund is correct, Kulturbund is something historical that wouldn't fit here, but I understand why you're asking.

And I can't help mentioning Spanish tierra, too.

There are many Romance languages I didn't mention, because that would clutter up this thread.

By the way, if you know why the "i" was added in Spanish (maybe in private, in a new thread or quickly here), it would be very interesting. Could it be that the "t" was softened by the following "i"?

Thanks for the root of terr-.

I cost me some investigation, but after I knew how I can find it without having an etymological dictionary of Romance languages (if you can provide any, that would be great), I finally found it. Terrain is used in English and German, too, but they are not the words to refer to our planet.

 

[Outsider]

By the way, if you know why the "i" was added in Spanish (maybe in private, in a new thread or quickly here), it would be very interesting. Could it be that the "t" was softened by the following "i"?

It's a very characteristic feature of Spanish (along with a few less known minority languages of Iberia): when a Latin short E was in a stressed syllable, it became the diphthong IE in Spanish. This compensated for the loss of vowel length distinctions in Vulgar Latin.

Did you manage to find the original meaning of the Germanic and the Semitic roots? That would be interesting.

 

[Chazzwozzer]

For the Turk languages, they use the root y/sh-r, I think (Chazzwozzer may elaborate upon this topic)
Turkish: yer
Kazakh: Жер (sher)
Azeri: yer
Uzbek: yer
____

An ancient Turkic word is the root: "yér"
Turks usually call the earth "dünya" which is an Arabic loan rather than "yer," "yerküre," "yer yuvarı" or "yer yuvarlağı;" whereas some sources still insist on using the Turkic equivalent. Two words for the earth that come to my mind right now, which are not used anymore, are "acun"(ajun: the name for Buddhist incarnation in old Turkic) and "arz"(from Arabic arḌ)

 

[Arrius]

To get back to the original proposition, of a connexion between the Germanic aard(e)/Erde/earth and the Arabic arD. I used to think that too, but it now seems unlikely to me: just one of those many strange coincidences, I fear.
Whereas the Germanic root is said to have had the meaning of both soil and abode of Man (before anybody knew the world was round) throughout its history from Proto-Indoeuropean, it is most likely that the Arabic arD comes from the verb raDiy meaning to satisfy or to content in which there is implied a filling up, a completion, a whole.
I once thought aard might be connected with 3araDa which yields 3ariiD wide and ma3raD exhibition because the world is spread out before us, but I came to believe that to be fanciful too. There are many connexions
between Arabic and European languages, but not here I think.
On the other hand I think it quite likely that تَرْب tarab (the kind of earth that makes your hands dirty) is connected with French tourbe(peat/combustible earth). They can't all be coincidences.
nog 'n keer, mooi loop!
A.

 

[Whodunit]

It's a very characteristic feature of Spanish (along with a few less known minority languages of Iberia): when a Latin short E was in a stressed syllable, it became the diphthong IE in Spanish. This compensated for the loss of vowel length distinctions in Vulgar Latin.

Ah, that's interesing. That should be the reason why there is "pienso", "tienes" etc. for the first and second person, although the infinitive is "pensar" and "tener". French is rather incosistent about this matter (je pense; je tiens).

Thanks for the information!

Did you manage to find the original meaning of the Germanic and the Semitic roots? That would be interesting.

Hm, I've tried to find a better explanation, but all I can find is that the Germanic root is IE *er[t] meaning "earth/soil/ground." However, I just found something very interesting that confirms what someone else in thsi thread has already mentioned. The Grimm dictionary of the German language explains the origin of "Erde" as follows (translated by myself):

ERDE, f. terra, Goth. airþa, Old Saxon ertha, OE eorðe, OHG ërda, MHG ërde, Middle Dutch erde, aerde, New Dutch aarde, English earth, Frisian irth, Old Norse iörð, Swedish, Danish jord.

1) The origin of such a sweeping, old word gets lost in the dark. Since Latin and the Celtic languages are normally close to our language, one might consider a sound shift: terra, Celtic tir(cf. atír in ZEUSZ 254) is to airþa, ërda as Lithianian darbas is to Gothic arbaiþs or as forma is to μορφη, and we must not forget that the sound shift of the Latin t to the Gothic þ, OHG d is completely regular. Aside from Welsh tir, daear, Armenian (?) douar also count, in which again some changed lingualis (?) could appear. The double rr in terra may, like in curro, susurrus and the like, be accrued from ri. Tellus, the goddess Tellus, does not belong to terra at all.

The text is in older German before the first spelling reform in 1901, so I'm not sure what they mean by "fortgeschobne lingualis". I hope you'll get the message anyway. There's, by the way, much more to read about the origin of earth, but it's all in German and I don't feel like translating all the stuff.

An ancient Turkic word is the root: "yér"
Turks usually call the earth "dünya" which is an Arabic loan rather than "yer," "yerküre," "yer yuvarı" or "yer yuvarlağı;" whereas some sources still insist on using the Turkic equivalent. Two words for the earth that come to my mind right now, which are not used anymore, are "acun"(ajun: the name for Buddhist incarnation in old Turkic) and "arz"(from Arabic arḌ)

Yes, I know dünya, too, because there was a song (dünya dönüyor) in Germany with both German and Turkish lyrics. However, I wanted to use yer in this thread to group it to the other Turk languages.

 

[Whodunit]

To get back to the original proposition, of a connexion between the Germanic aard(e)/Erde/earth and the Arabic arD. I used to think that too, but it now seems unlikely to me: just one of those many strange coincidences, I fear.

When I began studying Arabic, I was surprised, too, that the Arabic word was so close to the German one. However, I didn't think much about it anymore then, because I thought it was either a coincidence or a borrowing from English (or another language) like the Arabic تنك (bank). It turned out to be the former.

Whereas the Germanic root is said to have had the meaning of both soil and abode of Man (before anybody knew the world was round) throughout its history from Proto-Indoeuropean, it is most likely that the Arabic arD comes from the verb raDiy meaning to satisfy or to content in which there is implied a filling up, a completion, a whole.

That might be possible, but here is some more food for thought:

رض (raDDa) = crush - very unlikely
راض (raada) = teach an animal tricks - rather unlikely
روض (rawwada) = tame - quite unlikely, too
روض (raud) = garden - possible
راض (raadin) = satisfied - similar to yours, possible
أضاء (aDaa2a) = light up/illuminate - possible by meaning; unlikely by morphology

I once thought aard might be connected with 3araDa which yields 3ariiD wide and ma3raD exhibition because the world is spread out before us, but I came to believe that to be fanciful too. There are many connexions between Arabic and European languages, but not here I think.

I don't think that is very likely, because the shift from ع to a vowel (like ا or أ) is not a typical sound shift in Arabic, as far as I know (I might be wrong though).

On the other hand I think it quite likely that تَرْب tarab (the kind of earth that makes your hands dirty) is connected with French tourbe(peat/combustible earth). They can't all be coincidences.

I wouldn't question that, but I don't see how it is relate to this thread. There are many Arabic borrowings in the French language, and, to be honest, I wouldn't consider tourbe a French word by its looks.

nog 'n keer, mooi loop!

As I said, it isn't a coincidence, but simply a borrowing.

 

[Outsider]

Meanwhile, here's what I found about the origin of Gaia (not much, alas):

"Earth as a goddess," from Gk. Gaia, personification of gaia "earth," a collateral form of ge (Dorian ga) "earth," of unknown origin. The Roman equivalent goddess of the earth was Tellus (see tellurian), sometimes used in Eng. poetically or rhetorically for "Earth personified" or "the Earth as a planet."

also:

tellurian

"pertaining to the earth," 1846, from L. tellus (gen. telluris) "earth," from PIE base *tel- "ground, floor" (cf. Lith. telinat "spread out, flat," Skt. talam "plain, sole of the foot," O.C.S. tilo "floor," Gk. telia "dice board," O.Ir. talam "earth," O.N. þilja "plank").

 

[Whodunit]

Indeed, it would be interesting to know which root and basic meaning γῆ (gê) is derived from. I can't find anything except that it was cel in Etruscan, if that helps.

 

[Eva Maria]

Coincidence or not, I still find this very interesting, because in my layman's view it might very well be that both language families inherited their stems (for "earth") from a distant but common ancester.

A common ancestor to the Indo-European and Semitic languages? Our common ancestry is that we are all human beings.

Our phonetic system (mouth, tongue, palate, lips, teeth) is similar in all human races, our voices are similar, just like the shrieks of all ape races sound alike, or the cheeps of birds.

The homo – finally - sapiens’ first impression of the earth (the ground, the soil, the terrain), firstly physical, then emotional and lastly reflexive cognitive, must have been quite similar to all human groups or tribes spread throughout the globe. Think about the deep feeling which arouses inside our beings when one says “mama” (one of the words more similar in most languages); and all the basic emotions: joy, fear,... which are genuinely human. We have similar bodies, similar senses, similar experiences of reality.

But when they gave a name to all things, why some of them said “ard”, others “privtii”, “yar”, “zem”,..? The same reason why the squeals of each ape race don’t sound exactly like another’s: different sounds, different words.

EM

 

[Arrius]

"the deep feeling which arouses inside our beings when one says “mama" " (Eva Maria)
Such varied languages as Sanskrit, Russian, Arabic and Zambian Chibemba (amai) have an M in the word for "mother" simply because it is the easiest sound for a baby to make, /b/ and /p/ usually contained in words for father (papa,Kiswaheli baba) are slightly more difficult to make and are used for the other parent, initially of much less interest to the child, when there is more control over the speech organs. Thus it is a matter of universal oral mechanics rather than some innate urge common to all mankind that selects these sounds. The emotions felt on hearing the word for mother at a later stage are evoked by the tender associations established by the earlier mechnical process. Perhaps what I have said is in no way contrary to your argument. But I find it difficult to believe that an Urmensch was responsible for the initial name of his planet and its surface, with its later lexical derivatives, unless we accept the Garden of Eden literally, possibly in conjunction with the theories of Louis Leakey in the Great African Rift Valley.

 

[apatheos]

I pulled this little tidbit directly from the wikipedia article dedicated to Gaia.

Ge is a pre-Greek substrate word that some relate to the Sumerian Ki, also meaning Earth.

I think that's about as early of a root as you can get.

If this has already been mentioned, please excuse me. I'm new.

 

[sinclair001]

Sometime ago I learned some little japanese and remember the term for earth is tsuchi.
Graphical representation in
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:KXRVJYxtaOMJ:www.everything2.com/index.pl%3Fnode%3DSoil+tsuchi+etymology&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=co

 

[gogoneddus]

P.S. It's Daear in Welsh (related to Terra?) Can you think of a prettier name for a planet?

Just out of interest for you, in Welsh, it is more common to precede the noun with the definite article, so it will become 'Y Ddaear'

 

[Lugubert]

Nice list, Whodunit, but I'll make a few corrections.

Okay, after all your posts and by help of some dictionaires and Wikipedia, I'm going to present you an overview about the different derivatives, cognates, and roots of the word "earth" in several language families:


For the Indian languages, the root is p-v-th, I think:

Gujarati: પૃથ્વી (privTii)
Hindi: पृथ्वी (privTii)
Marathi: पृथ्वी (privTii)
Nepali: पृथ्वी (privTii)
Bengali: পৃথিবী (privTii?)

T = aspriated t
ii = long i vowel
the r is vocalic, as far as I know

You can't exclude vowels in IE roots. Using R for vowel r, a possible origin for those words is Skt. pRthuu 'to extend, expand, enlarge, spread out'. The translitterations are pRthvii for the first four languages above, all probably pronounced prithivii, and for Bengali, it's pRthivii (equals the Sanskrit Earth).

I don't want to conclude that the word is "privTii" throughout all Indian languages, particularly since the Urdu word is زمنن (zamiin?).

Hindi ज़मीन = Urdu زمين = Persian زمين zamiin.

For the Semitic languages, the root is /-r-d(s), as far as I can tell (/ stands for an initial vowel):

Arabic: أرض (arD)
Hebrew: ארץ (arez)

You should indicate the initial glottal stop: Arabic and Bible Hebrew words can't begin with a vowel (1 exception in BH). Arabic 'arD. For BH, without the definite article I would transliterate it as 'æræS (or, if I have to, 'æræts). With the article, it's ha-'aræS. Ugaritic 'arS, Assyrian erSitu. Some sources posit a Proto-Semitic voiced emphatic interdental d. Writing Dh for this sound, the Semitic root might be '-r-Dh.

 

[Kurdistanish]

Hi All

Kurdish erd (also herd) “earth” is very likely of Indo-European origin. Because it never happened in Kurdish to change Arabic dh into d. Arabic dh in Arabic loanwords is always pronounced z in Kurdish e.g. razî (agree, Ar. râdhi), Reza (male forename, Ar. Rîdhâ), zabîte (discipline, Ar. dhâbita). Very interesting that both Kurdish erd and Arabic erz (< ardh) exist in some Kurdish dialects at the same time.

Kurdish doesn’t share any similarity with the Semitic languages (exactly Arabic) unless Arabic loanwords brought by Arabic invaders and their new religion. By the way Kurdish could be called purest Iranian language by preserving the most original words and loaning less words from Arabic compared with Arabic loanwords in Persian and other Iranian and none-Iranian languages (such as Turkish, Azerbaijani, etc)

Beside erd we have zemî ( > zevî ) “earth” in Kurdish which is derived from Avestan zime-, zeme- “earth” sharing same root with Slavic languages, Croatian zemlja, Czech země, Slovak zem, Polish ziemia, Russian zemlja, Serbian zemlja (also tlo). Most interesting in this case, Kurdish zimistan (< zivistan), Talyshi, Lurish zəməson, Persian zemestan, Croatian, Serbian zima all mean “winter”.

 

[cynicmystic]

Hi All

Kurdish erd (also herd) “earth” is very likely of Indo-European origin. Because it never happened in Kurdish to change Arabic dh into d. Arabic dh in Arabic loanwords is always pronounced z in Kurdish e.g. razî (agree, Ar. râdhi), Reza (male forename, Ar. Rîdhâ), zabîte (discipline, Ar. dhâbita). Very interesting that both Kurdish erd and Arabic erz (< ardh) exist in some Kurdish dialects at the same time.

Kurdish doesn’t share any similarity with the Semitic languages (exactly Arabic) unless Arabic loanwords brought by Arabic invaders and their new religion. By the way Kurdish could be called purest Iranian language by preserving the most original words and loaning less words from Arabic compared with Arabic loanwords in Persian and other Iranian and none-Iranian languages (such as Turkish, Azerbaijani, etc)

Beside erd we have zemî ( > zevî ) “earth” in Kurdish which is derived from Avestan zime-, zeme- “earth” sharing same root with Slavic languages, Croatian zemlja, Czech země, Slovak zem, Polish ziemia, Russian zemlja, Serbian zemlja (also tlo). Most interesting in this case, Kurdish zimistan (< zivistan), Talyshi, Lurish zəməson, Persian zemestan, Croatian, Serbian zima all mean “winter”.

Very interesting...

Could you provide some citation regarding your theory about Kurdish being the 'purest' Iranian language in terms of retaining a purely Iranian vocabulary. To me, it sounded a bit far-fetched.

 

[konungursvia]

Interestingly, Cantonese is similar to the Mandarin you list as "Chinese" in general, but its first syllable is pronounced "/te/" as in the Latin languages. Therefore, the word may pre-date Proto-Indo-European and belong to the East African language family Homo sapiens left that continent with about 40,000 years ago. I'd like to see some African languages added to the list. Obviously, they had some agricultural knowledge, or at least gathered things growing in the earth.

 

[Zsanna]

In Hungarian (which is in the Ugrian branch of Finno-Ugrian group and mostly quite different from the languages in the other branch) it is: föld.

I could imagine that the Finnish/Estonian maa could be connected to our mező (= field), but that is just a guess.

The fact that in Arabic there is a similitude gave me the idea that the root may be somewhere in Sanskrit. As it is often the case with Indo-European languages. (That could also explain why in Celtic languages there is similarity and why in Latin languages there is a difference...)

 

[Montaigne]

Il existe un mot sanskrit "tira" qui signifie "rive" i.e la terre par opposition à la mer, là où finit l'Océan de Lait.

Wrings any bell among sanskritists?

 

[Arrius]

Il existe un mot sanskrit "tira" qui signifie "rive" i.e la terre par opposition à la mer, là où finit l'Océan de Lait.

Ring any bells among sanskritists?

Je te prie de nous expliquer ce que c'est que l'Océan de Lait (the Ocean of Milk), s.t.p.

 

[Lugubert]

tīra तीर is derived from the verb तॄ (i.e. t + long vowel r), meaning 'to pass across or over, float, fulfil, escape' etc.

Ocean of Milk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ksheersagar

 

[scoobysnax]

It is likely that the word Earth comes to the English language from the Norse goddess known as Hertha or Nerthus. Roman consul and historian, Tacitus, wrote an account in the year 98, of a north German deity variously named Ertha, Hertha, Nerthus, or Mother Earth. The name also appears in the Viking sagas, written down as early as the year 1190. The German name Bertha may owe its origin to this goddess of myth and fertility. This account by the Roman historian Tacitus predates any other references I've been able to find as to the usage or etymology of the word earth. Historically, we named planets after Roman or Greek gods. Why not name our planet after the goddess who ruled the very stuff the planet is made of? She also was goddess of the home the legend goes, and as smoke rose up from the fireplace it was said to be her spirit, thus the word hearth. In old Teutonic languages, the worth hearth means "the ground beneath your feet." If you're curious, look up Hertha or Nerthus as to its Norse origins. Search google.com for "norse" and "Hertha" or for Tacitus and Hertha. Very interesting and fun stuff.

Sincerely,

Eric Kasum

 

[Aydintashar]

The similarity between earth and the Arabic word أرض cannot be accidental. However, it should be born in mind that, most modern dictionaries trace the etymologies back to IE, and willingly avoid discussion around roots of Mesopotamian origin. Mesopotamia has been the cradle of civilisation, and all languages bear some traces. I think the word earth must be traced back to the Sumerian ur, which signifies town, place, area, territory, etc.

 

[Frank06]

Hi,

The similarity between earth and the Arabic word أرض cannot be accidental.

Why not?

However, it should be born in mind that, most modern dictionaries trace the etymologies back to IE,

PIE, maybe? Proto-Indo-European?

and willingly avoid discussion around roots of Mesopotamian origin.

Four questions:
1. Why would they avoid that?
2. Which "modern dictionaries" "willingly avoid" those kind of discussions?
3. What are your arguments that there is a (genetic) relation between PIE and (proto-)Semitic?
4. What do you mean by "Mesopotamian"? It's very weird to see a word in this context referring to a region rather than to a language.

Mesopotamia has been the cradle of civilisation,

I beg your pardon?

and all languages bear some traces.

Traces of what? Of "Mesopotamian" languages? I'd love to see examples of "traces in all languages" (preferably in a separate thread).

I think the word earth must be traced back to the Sumerian ur, which signifies town, place, area, territory, etc.

Great to learn about what you think. It's a pitty, though, that you don't give any sound and solid arguments.

Yes, I am quite skeptic about your claims. And yes, you can always convince me with solid arguments based upon the basic principles of historical comparative linguistics.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Groetjes,

Frank

 

[Lemminkäinen]

For the Slavic languages, the root is z(i)em-, concluding from the examples (but I'm not sure where the "l" on Russian and Bosnian comes from).

I can't give you much in-depth info, but it's an epenthetic consonant that appeared during the elimination of the consonant cluster *Cj: *mj > ml'

So the proto-Slavic *zem-j-a turned into the Old Church Slavonic form zemlja (similar to the modern Russian).

However, the adjective doesn't have this l: zemnoj šar ("the earth globe"), which is derived from *zem-inos (cf. OCS zemьnъ).

 

[james.]

Remember that the Semitic languages, e.g. Arabic and Hebrew, are included in the vast Afro-Asiatic language family. In mainstream linguistics, this is not considered to be at all related to the Indo-European family. There are theories that suggest common origins for some or all language groups, but these are highly controversial. Thus it would be impossible for these distinct groups to share word origins.

 

[Mahaodeh]

Thus it would be impossible for these distinct groups to share word origins.

I would first like to point out that I am in no way arguing that Earth has Semitic or Afro-Asiatic roots or not; I would just like to point to the above argument. First, not having any evidence of any relation does not mean that there was never any relation, right? Second, there may have been some contact in pre-historical times, when people spoke but did not write, right? it could be borrowed from one to the other or they could have both borrowed it from some third group? Third, regardless of any "proto-world-language" or any similar theories, since science tells us that both the Indo-Europeans and the Semites both originated in Africa, then at some point in time, probably too far back for us to trace it, there may have been some connection.

I'm not saying that there must have been shared word origins but I'm also saying it's not impossible. We just don't know and it’s highly unlikely for us to know for sure (at least in the foreseeable furture) so we don’t claim it to be true but the word impossible is a little too definite for something we don't know much about.

I would not dismiss the coincidence theory either, after all, there are so many words to invent and so little sounds we can combine to create ones; and I’m sure every single one of us has come across stranger coincidences.

 

[james.]

Yeah I suppose that word does sound a little strong, especially when taken out of the context of my original post. I was just saying, keep in mind that these languages have no generally accepted genetic link, and that, given that fact, it would then be impossible for them to share roots in a purely genetic sense. But intermixing and borrowings have occurred since the dawn of speech, so I'm not denying the possibility of a more superficial relationship. Also, I find the theories linking PIE with other parent groups very fascinating, it's just, as I understand it, there has not been enough evidence presented for the linguistic community to fully accept them. There are apparent, very general and superficial similarities between very distant, totally unrelated languages, similarities that are unaccounted for by historical linguistics. But this may stem from common cognitive characteristics inherent to mankind.

 

[Outsider]

Third, regardless of any "proto-world-language" or any similar theories, since science tells us that both the Indo-Europeans and the Semites both originated in Africa [...]

If by that you mean the speakers of Indo-European and of Semitic languages, then we do not know whether they both originated in Africa. Proto-Indo-European, for all we know, only developed long after the ancestrors of its speakers had left Africa. The most common theory is that PIE originates from somewhere around the Black Sea.

 

[Christo Tamarin]

Hi
here is the word "earth" in some Slavic languages:

Czech: země
Slovak: zem
Russian: zemlja (земл̀я)
Polish: ziemia

In other Slavic languages it's going to be very similar.

Bulgarian: зем̀я (zemia)

So the proto-Slavic *zem-j-a turned into the Old Church Slavonic form zemlja (similar to the modern Russian).

Yes. In Old Slavic, the consonant cluster *Cj, where C is among {b,p,v,m}, in the cases where j is also a consonant, tends to change to *CLj. L is an epenthetic consonant indeed. It has been dropped later in many Slavic dialects.

The Slavic zemja/зем̀я (earth) is related to the Latin words humus and homo.

Please consider that the Latin words homo (man, human) and humus (soil, ground, earth) are really related. Perhaps, there could be some very old influence from Mesopotamia concerning the following idea:

{Genesis 2:7} And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.