Etymology of Slavic "foot"

[Kurdistanish]

Hi everybody,

I wanted to know abt the etymology of Slavic word for "foot"~"noga", "nog"*, etc. In Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji dialect) there is "nyg" for "foot" besides current "pe"/"pi". Do Slavic "noga" and Kurdish "nyg" share same root?

Thanx

 

[Athaulf]

Hi everybody,

I wanted to know abt the etymology of Slavic word for "foot"~"noga", "nog"*, etc.

According to Pokorny, this word comes from the PIE root *onogh-, which originally meant "nail" or "claw" (in fact, English "nail" is apparently its cognate). In Vasmer's Russian etymological dictionary, the entry for noga says "ORIGIN: native [Slavic word], with original meaning 'claw'".

In Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji dialect) there is "nyg" for "foot" besides current "pe"/"pi". Do Slavic "noga" and Kurdish "nyg" share same root?

I have no idea. I'd say it's not highly likely, since the non-Slavic cognates of noga listed in the above dictionaries mostly have meaning along the lines of "nail" or "claw", rather than "foot". However, it is possible, so you'll have to find some authoritative source on Kurdish etymology for a definite answer.

 

[Kurdistanish]

According to Pokorny, this word comes from the PIE root *onogh-, which originally meant "nail" or "claw" (in fact, English "nail" is apparently its cognate). In Vasmer's Russian etymological dictionary, the entry for noga says "ORIGIN: native [Slavic word], with original meaning 'claw'".



I have no idea. I'd say it's not highly likely, since the non-Slavic cognates of noga listed in the above dictionaries mostly have meaning along the lines of "nail" or "claw", rather than "foot". However, it is possible, so you'll have to find some authoritative source on Kurdish etymology for a definite answer.

Thank you, I'll compare the information to figure it out if Kurdish "nyg" is cognate with Slavic "noga" or not.

 

[Frank06]

Hi,

Thank you, I'll compare the information to figure it out if Kurdish "nyg" is cognate with Slavic "noga" or not.

Maybe these pages (Indo-Aryan inherited lexicon by Lubotsky) can help a bit too in your search. It doesn't give specific information for Kurdish, but here you find the Proto-Indo-Iranian form and cognates in other II languages. Be sure to change the encoding to 'Utf-8'.

Groetjes,

Frank

 

[Alijsh]

Thank you, I'll compare the information to figure it out if Kurdish "nyg" is cognate with Slavic "noga" or not.

What is the Kurdish for "nail"? Slavic "noga" seems to be comparable with the Persian word for "nail" i.e. nâxon (nâkhon). What do you think?

 

[Kanes]

Is noga universal to most Slavic languages?

 

[Athaulf]

Is noga universal to most Slavic languages?

I'd be very surprised to find even a single one that doesn't have it. See the above link to Vasmer - it lists almost identical sounding cognates of this word in nearly all major Slavic languages.

 

[Kanes]

I'd be very surprised to find even a single one that doesn't have it. See the above link to Vasmer - it lists almost identical sounding cognates of this word in nearly all major Slavic languages.

On Bulgarian legs = kraka

 

[Athaulf]

On In Bulgarian legs = kraka

Hm... interesting! Vasmer lists Bulgarian нога as "dialectal". Is this word really absent from modern standard Bulgarian? Or does have a different meaning?

By the way, this is an interesting false friend. In Croatian, krak is used for exceptionally long limbs of animals, like e.g. the limbs of an octopus or the back legs of a frog. I've heard it used for human legs only jokingly, when talking about someone with exceptionally long legs.

 

[Kanes]

If it was there, it is absent now. We have similar one used sometimes in literature though, noze, but you wont hear someone using it when talking.

Clearly the Croation and our word are connected, plus almost the same meaning. For me krak sounds more logical because of the word for hand though. How do you say hand?

 

[OldAvatar]

Romanian has it too:

crac = leg (from the hip to the ankle);

 

[Athaulf]

If it was there, it is absent now. We have similar one used sometimes in literature though, noze, but you wont hear someone using it when talking.

Yes, that's certainly a cognate with noga (I'd guess нозе is plural, though). However, googling for нога on Bulgarian pages, I got quite a few hits (see this search, for example), and I know this word is used in standard Macedonian. Are you sure that нога doesn't exist at least as a dialectal or archaic word in Bulgarian?

Clearly the Croation and our word are connected, plus almost the same meaning. For me krak sounds more logical because of the word for hand though. How do you say hand?

In Croatian (and other BCS variants) it's ruka. If I'm not mistaken, it should be a cognate with Bulgarian ръка. I don't see how this would make krak "more logical" than noga, though?

 

[Kanes]

Both are archaic in that case. The couple of results in the search you posted were 'national folk tales' and 'bulgarian poetry'. In contemporary speach or writing they are absent, and noga I have not even heard. Isn't it plural like noze btw? It sounds plural.

Tons of words are formed from the root of raka and krak, simplest example though is: kraka = legs and raka = hand. Thats why seemed more logical then noze, plus there is no singular word for leg related to noze.

 

[Duya]

Tons of words are formed from the root of raka and krak, simplest example though is: kraka = legs and raka = hand. Thats why seemed more logical then noze, plus there is no singular word for leg related to noze.

Could you please find a source demonstrating that krak and raka are cognates? I highly doubt it.

 

[dihydrogen monoxide]

Raka cognate with Slovene roka comes from PIE *uronkaH, in the end it means to grab.
Kraka cognate with Slovene krak comes from PIE *(s)ker 'to turn' and is related with Slovene kriv.

 

[Darina]

"Vasmer lists Bulgarian нога as "dialectal"

It is typical for Western Bulgarian dialects. My grandmother says "noga", but she uses "nogi" for plural, not "noze".

The word is not only dialectal but also archaic, poetic and used at some expresions, for example the military command: "pushki pri noze", meaning "ground arms".

From all this information I can only conclude that Kanes is a young boy from Eastern Bulgaria who has not been a soldier yet.

As for the entimology of "крак", I think it can be a shorter version of "крайник".

 

[Palisto]

What is the Kurdish for "nail"? Slavic "noga" seems to be comparable with the Persian word for "nail" i.e. nâxon (nâkhon). What do you think?

PIE	*h₃nógʰ(r)o-
Hittite	sankuwais, sankuwai-
Tocharian A	maku
Tocharian B	mekwa
Albanian	thua
Ancient Greek	ὄνυξ
Ancient Greek (Herodotus)	ónükʰ- {ὄνυξ}
Greek	νύxι
Greek IPA	ˈniçi
Classical Armenian	magil
Armenian List	ełungn
Armenian	yeghung
Eastern Armenian	ełung
Avesta	srauuō (pl.)
Middle Persian	naxun
Persian	nāxun ( ناخُن )
Tajik	noxun
Zazaki	nengū
Kurdish	nînok, neynûk
Sogdian	n’γ’n
Shughni	nōxūn
Sariqoli	ni/ašɛwr
Kata/Kati	nʌčĩ
Kashmiri	nam
Vedic Sanskrit	naxás
Urdu	nɑxʊn
Lahnda	naŨh
Gypsi Gk	nai
Punjabi St	nahĪ
Marwari	nūṃ
Bihari	nah
Magahi	noh ( नोह )
Assamese	nɒx
Oriya	nɔxɔ
Sin(g)halese	niya
Old Church Slavonic	ногъть
Macedonian	nokt
Croatian	nokat
Serbo-Croatian	nokat
Russian	nogotʲ ( ноготь )
Czech	nehet
Polish	paznokieć
Old Prussian	nagutis
Latvian	nags
Lithuanian	nagas
Old Norse	naglu
Icelandic St	nögl
Swedish	nagel
Danish	negl
Old English	nægl
English	fingernail
Dutch List	nagel
Old High German	clāwa
German	Fingernagel
Lëtzebuergesch	nol
Schwyzerdütsch	nagu
Gothic	*nag-l-s
Latin	ungius
Italian	unghia
Catalan	ungla
Spanish	uña
French	ongle ( ɔ̃gl )
Provencal	ongla
Romansch	ungla
Friulian	ongule
Rumanian	unghie
Cornish	iwin
Breton St	ivin
Welsh N	ewin
Old Irish	ingen, ingen,
Irish B	ingen
Gaelic (Scots)	ìne

 

[bibax]

It is typical for Western Bulgarian dialects. My grandmother says "noga", but she uses "nogi" for plural, not "noze".

(Dvě) nozě looks like dual, not plural.

 

[Ben Jamin]

Hi everybody,

I wanted to know abt the etymology of Slavic word for "foot"~"noga", "nog"*, etc. In Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji dialect) there is "nyg" for "foot" besides current "pe"/"pi". Do Slavic "noga" and Kurdish "nyg" share same root?

Thanx

I would like to make you aware that "noga" means actually "leg", not "foot". Foot is called "stopa" or "stopalo" in most Slavic languages. When this is said, we should notice that the word "noga" includes the foot, and in colloquial use you may hear (at least in Polish) "I have pain in my legs" while actually the pain is in the feet. The same is valid for other colloquial expressions like "to have shoes on one's legs", in opposition to English usage, which strictly distinguishes between legs and feet. Using an expression like "I put my shoes on my feet" would sound strange and pedantic in Polish. In some fixed expressions, however, like "a land not touched by a human foot" the word foot is always used.

 

[Christo Tamarin]

As for the entimology of "крак", I think it can be a shorter version of "крайник".

No. The word "крак" has a separare Slavic root and has cognates in Russian, e.g.: окорок.