Etymology of meanings. Brief etymological dictionary of planetary toponyms. At the origins of civilization
etymology began.
The first discovery of the secret of the sound “el’” I made accidentally. Once I saw a little girl who was eating a chocolate bar. The chocolate was melting in her mouth, dripping on her bib, and she was laughing, trying to say something, and I distinctly heard that soft sound “el’”. I tried to collect my own saliva, but I couldn’t make the “el’” sound. Then I realized that it is not important the amount of saliva for this sound, but its release is. I filled my mouth with chocolate and waited for my mouth to drool, but it didn’t work either. Then the next day I ate nothing, drank only water, and, being hungry, put the chocolate back in my mouth. And the sound “el’ " took place!
This small discovery led me to believe that the first sounds that a person began to utter were related to his physiology. The state of pleasure, in which saliva is released and the sound “el’” appears, is remembered, fixed in memory or at the genetic level, and in the future, people transmitted the pleasure of life with this sound. Soft sound “el’” is a natural sound that was formed involuntarily, without meaning, expressing pleasant moments of eating.
So it was remembered once and the soft sound “el’” became “stronger, “matured” in languages and sounded like our usual “l”, although the meaning of pleasure, enjoyment remained for it. On its prehistoric “base” appeared a huge number of words, the meaning of which can somehow be reduced to the “common denominator”– joy, pleasure, delight, euphoria. What words could form this sound, this protoroot? Probably, the word “lubov” (love) comes to mind immediately— and quite justifiably! Laska (caress), ulybka (smile), lest’ (flattery), l`zya (permission), legko (easy), lizat’ (to lick), l`nut’ (to cling)—all go back to pleasure and delight. Including when the image of the highest bliss discloses a person. Hence the concept of divinity in different languages: this is Helios, and the Bible, and Israel, and Arabic word Allah, where the sound “l’” has not lost its softness.
It became clear to me that the soft sound “el’” is an involuntary sound, which was born in the depths of human feelings. And the usual “l” is the sound is already meaningful, introduced into the ancient communication system. This meaningful sound formed the protoroot, which combined with other sounds to create words. Knowing the semantic source, it is easy to understand how later meanings appeared.
The soft sound of “l’”, of course, was not the only one that participated in the multi-faceted “meaning-making”. But after that, it was easier for me to understand how other meaningful sounds developed.
Feelings, sounds and protoroots
Language was born out of feelings and meanings. The sense organs gave a person a multi-colored palette of such creative associations. “Everyone hears how he or she breathes”—it is not surprising that a number protoroots originated from the breath sounds. Even in the very word “dykhanie” (breath) this ancient semantic intuition remains. Really, what do we hear when we breathe? The natural, independent of our will, breathing sound is the sound “kh”, combined with various vowel sounds:" kha”, ” kho”, ” khe”, ” khi”, ” akh”, ” okh”, “ukh”. The sound “kh” has become a language protoroot with common meanings related to breathing.
Later, the sounds of breathing became associated with the soul of a person. Breathing means that you are alive. If he\she doesn’t breathe it means that his\her soul has left. For example, when I was a child, my mother would often tell me when she was buttoning the top buttons of my clothes: “You are open-hearted.” And I knew that “soul” is my breathed chest. And to give up the ghost means to lose the “kho”, the air. You can easily remember the words formed by the simplest sounds of breathing: “dykho” (“trachea”), “tikho” (quiet), “ukho” (ear), “ekho” (echo), “likho” (evil\trouble). Even God—“bhoga”—grants breath. This group includes interjections: “akh”, “okh”, ” ukh”, “ekh”. Even the particle “ish” has its physiological origin in the respiratory.
But everything evolves and in the process of evolution protoroots also found new meanings. There is a simple example. At rest, a person breathes easily, freely: inhale and then exhale. Sounds are simple, ordinary. And if a person moves for a long time, and even uphill, and even with the luggage, and even in the “formation” of his fellow tribesmen, who set a certain rhythm – what happens to the breath? There’s not enough air. Breathing becomes “heavy”. And the sounds of breathing also change – instead of a light sound “kh”, you can already hear a heavy, slightly “hoarse” combination of sounds “kh” and “g”.
Let’s complicate the situation. Imagine that our ancient ancestors were walking along the mountains and valleys, and suddenly the path ends – where must they go next? Tired and out of breath, people started looking around and presumably showing each other where to go. What sounds would they use to support their gestures? It is clear – sounds of “heavy” and “open” breathing, with sound “ga” at the base. This sound, mixed with hoarseness and fatigue, received the meaning of way\path, movement and direction.
Protoroot “ga” “grows” everywhere with a variety of pronunciation. On the map of our planet you will find hundreds and hundreds of names formed by this protogoot in the meaning of “way”: Gava, Hanover, Hamburg, Kaluga, Prague, Go, Volga, Riga, Malaga and hundreds of others. In Russian, the first thing that comes to mind is the word “doroga” (road). In addition to it, there are a variety of options: “gat’” (swamp road), “gatit’” (build a road through a swamp, a swampy place), “gay” (pave the way through the forest), “poganyy” (nasty\bad (what is lying along the road)) and even “gad” (reptile). The words formed by this protoroot can be found in both English and German: “go”, “gehen” (to go) and others.
However, the evolution of breath sounds did not end with the meaning of “way” or “direction”. Gradually, the sound “ga” became associated with those who lead the way, with those who go ahead – and therefore know where to go. The leading becomes the knowing. Next comes a reinterpretation of protoroot – the basis remains the same, but the pronunciation from the sounds “kh” and “g” becomes closer to the consonant “k”. And there are new diverse meanings of this sound: “leading”, “knowing”, “main”, “smart”, “thinking”. Although these meanings may seem varied at first glance, they all indicate the ability to think. So, the name of the Chinese game “Go” combines several meanings of this sound. At first I was surprised at the speculative nature of my conclusions, but than I immersed in this speculation more, that I understood my rightness again and again.
What words were formed with protoroot “ka” in its various shades? First of all, they touched the head, which is not only to wear a hat (by the way, this is also reflected in the words). For example, “kapusta” (cabbage)—in Russian it means “empty head”, “kaun” (melon), “kachan” (head of cabbage), “kalgan” (head), “kapa” (kind of hat), “kapyushon” (hood), “kepka” (cap) and others. The words “khalif” (the khalif), “kagan” (a title of imperial rank in the Turkic and Mongolic languages), “kasta” (caste) and the Capitol have the same protoroot. In Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, you can find the same root word “kapata”, which has the meaning “trick”, “deception”, but comes from the same meaning: “the ability to think.” And in the maloyanisol dialect of my ancestors has a word “gaka”, which means “big brother”. How could such word appear? —I think that this is “the first-born”, “going ahead”. And there are a lot of such interesting phenomena in the language.
There is another meaning derived from the sounds of breathing – the Greek word “ego” (εγώ), which translates as “I”. In the older maloyanisol dialect, the word “I” sounds simpler— “go”. Moreover, my grandmother did not pronounce a solid “go”, but again mixed sounds “g” and “kh”, closer to “kho”. The “e” sound in the