PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS 1: The Origin of Is "Is": The Concepts of Everything, All, Are, Is, I, Being, Self in Proto-Indo-European based on Bantu and Other Evidence

This as -- The Origin of Is "Is" -- begins a series of postings titled PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN ORIGINS, suggesting how certain terms developed in proto-Indo-European.

This series, depending on the words chosen, may in some cases or may not in many cases accept the hypothetical word roots assigned to terms by mainstream linguists, many of which are demonstrably false.

Rather, new facts, especially in genetics, demand revision of outdated concepts that have concentrated on the languages of Western Europe, contrary to the actual genetic and archaeological record. Be sure to first read Principles of Historical Language Reconstruction (PHILANGRECON).





The text of the above graphic, created with bubbl.us 2.0 beta, is:

THE ORIGIN OF IS "IS" © 2010 by Andis Kaulins

In proto-Indo-European, the "to be" concept of "is"
and related terms are derived from a basic
concept for "all that is" applied to "the self, the I".

The conventional etymology for the English term "is" from the Online Etymological Dictionary is: "O.E. is, from Gmc. stem *es- (cf. O.H.G., Ger., Goth. ist, O.N. es, er), from PIE *es-ti- (cf. Skt. asti, Gk. esti, L. est, Lith. esti, O.C.S. jesti), from base *es- "to be." O.E. lost the final -t-."

That etymology taken from mainstream sources does not hold water as an examination of the most archaic Indo-European languages, Latvian and Lithuanian, clearly proves, supported by the evidence of the Bantu words for "all" and "everything" in existence, i.e. the full ESSence of being. There was no original "T" at the end of what was ESSentially an ES- word.

African Bantu (Bukusu) -esi "all"; (Asu) ósè "all, everything"; (Basa) so "all"; (Kinyamwezi) ɔ́sɛ̀ "all"; (Yao) kòòsè "all". The Yao form shows the term gutturalized whence Bantu ku "man", kau "young man". Compare kungs ("sir") and kundze ("lady") in Latvian. In English, the words "all" (All in German means "space"), "area", and "are" are related forms coming from the "be" form of "is", such as Latvian ir ("is") and ārā "outside", i.e. the outdoor space as extensions of self, whence Hittite arha "away (from)".

es "I (the self)" in Latvian
viss "all, everything" Latvian
aš "I (the self)" Lithuanian

esu "am" in Latvian (being as a self-extension)
ēst  "to eat", i.e. selfing,
German essen "to eat"

īst(s) "real, ex-ist-ing" in Latvian

(m)ūsu "our", (m)ēs "we" in Latvian

us in English
is in English
as in English

ich "I"
ik "I"
in German
and Nordic
languages

es "it" German
ist "is" German

ego "I" in Latin
est "is" in Latin

The widespread s-mobile prefix (the verbal prefix of "self-action", depending on language) as s-, š, z-, ž, sa-, ša si-, ši, su-, šu, aiz, iz-, uz- and variables.

In Hittite, es- is a denominative for "to become what the base word means", i.e. as (like -(n)ess).

A Notice from the Journal of Language Relationship: Вопросы языкового родства, № 4 (2010) (Journal of Language Relationship, vol. 4 (2010))

Вопросы языкового родства, № 4 (2010)(Journal of Language Relationship, vol. 4 (2010))

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The Editors of the Journal of Language Relationship [are] happy to announce the publication of the fourth issue of the Journal. The volume contains articles on comparative studies in Niger-Congo, Uto-Aztecan, Uralic and other languages, as well as the fundamental collective paper on treating polysemic items in the Swadesh list. You are invited to read the contents and some of the articles of the issue on our renovated website at http://journal.nostratic.ru, equipped by the mechanism of extended search of the Journal’s articles by keywords, authors and topics. The subscription to the Journal can also be made through the website. It is normally [by subscription only], but we are offering [a] free trial subscription for one issue of the Journal, which seems quite popular both in Russia and abroad, so you are welcome. We also invite authors to contribute to the sixth issue of the Journal. The submission guidelines are easily found on the website.

Please see details:http://www.nostratic.ru/index.php?page=news&id=74

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Редакция журнала «Вопросы языкового родства» рада сообщить о выходе в свет четвёртого номера журнала. В выпуск вошли статьи, посвящённые сравнительно-историческому изучению нигеро-конголезских, юто-ацтекских, уральских языков, а также фундаментальная коллективная статья о методике работы с полисемическими лексемами в списке Сводеша. Ознакомиться с содержанием и прочесть некоторые статьи номера можно на обновлённом сайте журнала http://journal.nostratic.ru, который теперь содержит возможности поиска статей по авторам, тематикам и ключевым словам всех номеров журнала. На сайте можно также оформить годовую подписку на журнал. Обычно это делается за деньги, но мы предоставляем возможность бесплатной пробной подписки на один выпуск журнала, которой многие в России и за рубежом с удовольствием пользуются. Обращайтесь! Приглашаем авторов направлять статьи для шестого номера журнала. Правила подготовки и адреса подачи статей также можно легко найти на сайте.

Подробнее см.:http://www.nostratic.ru/index.php?page=news&id=74

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http://www.nostratic.net

Language and Thought: The Influence of Languages on Human Thought Processes: What About Geographic Languages?

This is a very interesting article by Guy Deutscher on human languages and their influence on thought processes. We do not all think the same, and language has something to do with it.

One example is geographic language. In English, directions are usually given from the position of the person giving them, right, left, forward, turn, etc. Speakers of Guugu Yimithirr report everything by the cardinal directions of the heavens.

Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - NYTimes.com

"Guy Deutscher is an honorary research fellow at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at the University of Manchester. His new book, from which this article is adapted, is “Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages,” to be published this month by Metropolitan Books."

Hebrew ToolTip Translation for Greasemonkey

Hebrew ToolTip Translation for Greasemonkey

"Translate words on a webpage from Hebrew to English and vice-versa"

New book claims link between Asian dialects and some Canadian native languages

New book claims link between Asian dialects and some Canadian native languages: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

As the Belgian elections prove, language can be a divisive issue | Books | The Guardian

As the Belgian elections prove, language can be a divisive issue | Books | The Guardian

New Suffixes for Internet Domains in Arabic and Russian Characters

New suffixes for internet domains in Arabic and Russian characters have been approved by ICANN. As written at New Internet domains break language barriers - Globalization - Salon.com:

"Earlier this month, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia become the first nations to get Internet addresses entirely in non-Latin characters.

Egypt, for example, secured the right to the ".masr" domain (written in Arabic). "

In that regard, see also ICANN Chief visits Egypt.

Re: 40 LexiLine Newsletter How Old are the Baltic Languages? - Latvian Dictionaries - Latvian-German - Mīlenbahs - Endzelins

Reposted from the LexiLine Journal 292

Bob Sand has asked me some questions about Latvian dictionaries, indicating that he had gone to his library but had been unable to find one. I thank him for this question because it has given me the opportunity to do research and find new sources.

THE MAIN HISTORICAL LATVIAN-GERMAN DICTIONARY

Although numerous Latvian dictionaries are available at online bookstores and in large public libraries, the main historical dictionary - by far - for any study of Latvian is the four-volume
Latvian-German Historical Dictionary (Lettisch-deutsches
Wörterbuch) by Karlis (Karl) Mühlenbach and Janis (John) Endzelins

(cited as
Mühlenbachs-Endzelins, Mühlenbach-Endzelins, Muhlenbach-Endzelin, Muehlenbachs-Endzelins, Mülenbahs-Endzelins), Riga, 1923-1932, I-IV including supplementary volumes published later (Riga, 1933-1939) by Endzelins after Muehlenbach's passage.

ELECTRONIC ONLINE VERSION IN PREPARATION

An electronic online version of the above dictionary is being prepared. See
http://www.ailab.lv/mev and
http://www.ailab.lv/users/Everita/Everita_main.htm
according to which circa 75000 headwords (main entries) were included.

LIBRARY AVAILABILITY OF THE DICTIONARY

The dictionary is available e.g. at the Latvian National Library at http://snipurl.com/82me viz.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=M%C3%BChlenbach
as
Mīlenbahs Kārlis. Latviešu valodas vārdnīca = Lettisch-deutsches Wörterbuch : 4 sej. / Kārlis Mīlenbahs; red., papild. un nobeidzis Jānis Endzelīns. - Rīga, 1923-1932.

See http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000BLSTM/ and
http://snipurl.com/82m7
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books-de&field-keywords=m%FChlenbachs/ref=xs_ap_sai1_xgl/028-3063530-
5000565 (either copy this link which will not wrap in Yahoo or use
the "snip" (short-form) url for the same URL)

The Library of Congress has the four main volumes at
http://lccn.loc.gov/sv 92050110 catalogued as
Mülenbachs, Karlis. Latviešu valodas vardnica. Lettisch-deutsches Wörterbuch
and the supplementary volumes at http://lccn.loc.gov/25020477 catalogued as

"LC Control No.: 25020477
Type of Material: Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name: Mṻlenbachs, K. (Kārlis), 1853-1916. » More like this
Main Title: K. Mṻlenbacha Latviešu valodas vārdnīca. Redig̓ējis, papildinājis, turpinājis J. Endzelīns ... Izdevusi Izglītības ministrija ... K. Mühlenbachs Lettisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Redigiert, ergänzt und fortgesetzt von J. Endzelin ... Herausgegeben vom lettischen Bildungsministerium.
Published/Created: Riga, 1923-32.
Related Titles: Latviešu valodas vārdnīca.
K. Mühlenbachs Lettisch-deutsches Wörterbuch.
Lettisch-deutsches Wörterbuch.
Description: 4 v. 28 cm.
Contents: 1. A-I.--II. Ie-Or.--III. Pa-Sv.-IV. Ša-Zv.
Notes: Vols. 2-4: ... Kultūras fonda izdevums ... Herausgegeben vom lettischen Kueturfonds; v. 4: ... Redig̓ējis, papildinājis, nobeidzis J. Endzelīns.
Subjects: Latvian language--Dictionaries--German. » More like this
Endzelīns, Jānis, 1873-1961. » More like this
LC Classification: PG8981 .M8
Language Code: lavger"

The German National Library in Frankfurt has the main volumes and supplements as photo reprints at
http://snipurl.com/82n8
http://opac.dbf.ddb.de:30080/CHARSET=ISO-8859-1/DB=ext/IMPLAND=Y/LNG=DU/MAT=9001%2505BTKOSEVCZ%2505%2506/SID=df1f926c-0/SRT=YOP/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=8500&TRM=lettisch-deutsches+W%F6rterbuch
and
http://snipurl.com/82n9
http://opac.dbf.ddb.de:30080/DB=ext/SET=1/TTL=1/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=8500&TRM=Endzelin

ONE COPY of the DICTIONARY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KIEL

There is a copy of this dictionary at the University of Kiel Library in Germany and I have used that version for much of my work over the past 30 years. See
http://www.uni-kiel.de/ub/Faecher/systematik/rotuli.html
click on Slavistik, then on Baltistik, then on Lettische Philologie (at number 820) and then on Allgemeines (at number.350) This is a typical needle in the haystack system for indexing -
typical for libraries.

Here are relevant Kiel University Library entries - although the books are available ONLY in the central reading room and can not be borrowed. I personally photocopied all volumes for my own use some 30 years ago but these copies were sadly destroyed a few years ago during moving.

- K. Muelenbacha Latviesu valodas Vardnica
- Standort: Zentralbibliothek
- Signatur: R 132
- Katalognummer(n): sla 820.350 / Lettisch / Wortschatz
siehe auch: sla 820 / Lettisch

How often do you find this dictionary used and cited in mainstream linguistic work online? very seldom. The mainstream linguists talk endlessly about Indo-European as if they had a clue, yet Pokorny's alleged Indo-European Etymological Dictionary has only three citations (that I have been able to find) to this main historical Latvian dictionary - see http://www.indoeuropean.nl/

INCOMPETENCE IN MAINSTREAM LINGUISTICS
due to ignorance of LATVIAN LEXICOLOGY

To put it bluntly, the work of the linguists on Latvian lexicology with regard to the reconstruction of Indo-European is next to worthless because most linguists simply have NOT used the main sources at hand. They ignore Latvian because they know nothing about
it.

Mainstream linguists cite to Latvian terms sparingly if at all (see for Latvian and Hittite
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi16.htm) because they know nearly NOTHING about the lexical components of the language and apparently have no access to the most important source, which is this dictionary. I am afraid that many mainstream linguists are - for Latvian - ignorant incompetents - and this includes most of the LATVIAN linguists themselves, who write endlessly about grammar but know next to nothing about historical lexicology in Latvian.

GERMAN BORROWING OF LATVIAN TERMS

An interesting citation to this dictionary is found at Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch (DRW)
http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~cd2/drw/a/P06.htm
home page http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~cd2/drw/
which reads:

"Pageide [the modern spelling is "pagaide"]
Wortklasse: Femininum
Erklärung: anberaumter Zahltag.
sprachliche Erläuterung: zum Wort vgl. K. Mühlenbach, Lettisch-deutsches Wörterbuch III (Chicago 1955) 25.
Belegtext: ["kommt in alten rig. landvogteyl. Rechnungen vor, sogar noch in einer von 1578, wahrscheinlich in der Bed. von Wartezeit von lett. pagaidiht warten. Wenn die Stadt Riga in vorigen Zeiten ihre Bauern des Winters mit Korn und Heu unterstützte, so erhielten sie solches von der Landvogtey, wo es auf Kerbstücken bemerkt wurde. Im May des folgenden Jahres hielt der Landvogt die] pageide, [da denn jeder Bauer, welcher einen Vorschuß genommen hatte, sich mit seinem Kerbstock einfinden und das Geld abtragen mußte"]
Datierung: 1578 Fundstelle: Gutzeit,Livl. II 320 [weitere Angaben: urk.?]"

For those of you who read no German, this citation is to a word in German which is clearly taken from a Latvian word meaning "wait, provisional, temporary", and relating to agricultural subsidies which were issued in winter and as such marked on wooden sticks. The "wait" or "loan" based on those markings then had to be repaid in the following year.

LATVIAN INFLUENCE ON GERMAN LANGUAGE IN THE BALTIC

An interesting recent dissertation on the influence of Latvian on German in the Baltic is found at
ZUM EINFLUSS DES LETTISCHEN AUF DAS DEUTSCHE IM BALTIKUM by Ineta Polanska
http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=975200968
Polanska cites liberally to Mühlenbach-Endzelins and has the honor of apparently being the only linguist online [at that time] to do so.

Her section on specific German borrowings from Latvian with etymologies - at pages 195 through 321 - is of particular value.

This is a SUPERB work and a rare exception in mainstream linguistics, pointing to the linguistic world of the future in which the great antiquity and historical value of the Baltic languages - especially in lexicology and etymology - will ultimately be recognized, not just for German borrowings in the Baltic, but for Indo-European reconstruction generally.

Enjoy, Andis

Pharaonic Egyptian Hieroglyphs 1 - The Vowels - Matres Lectionis

Reposted from the LexiLine Journal 288

The current view of the Egyptian hieroglyphs is that they contained no "vowels". Although this is true in terms of "modern" vowels as used to separate consonants, the Egyptian hieroglyphs do in fact have symbols for vowel-type sounds which did not function as "vowels" per se but which represented separate language elements as specific sounds.

New File Added to our Egypt Files

To our LexiLine files at Yahoo Groups at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/files/Egypt/
I have added the file pharaonicvowels.png:


showing my decipherment of the ancient Old Kingdom Pharaonic Egyptian vowel-sound system.

Decipherment of the Vowel-Sound System of Ancient Egypt

This decipherment is the beginning of my correction of the mainstream transcriptions, transliterations and interpretations of the hieroglyphs. Mainstream work contains many, many errors.

In the early days of the Pharaonic Egyptian hieroglyphs, the ancients did not yet have our words or specific concepts for "vowel" or "consonant".

Indeed, even in modern times, a thing like "vowels" is a complicated subject. See e.g. Louis Goldstein of Yale University [currently at USC] and his writings on "vowel theory" at
http://artphon.usc.edu/LG/CV.php

Yet, in order to devise a written language, the ancients had to have some primitive "linguistic" understanding of sound and its connection to symbols in order to devise a workable writing system.

I have discovered how that Pharaonic "vowel" system worked.

Mater Lectionis (singular) - Early vowels in the Hebrew Alphabet

The Pharaonic "vowels" show that the Egyptian hieroglyphs were the DIRECT predecessor system to what is know as the matres lectionis (plural) of the Hebrew alphabet in which Aleph is mostly an A, He mostly an A, Waw mostly an O or a U and Jod mostly I, E or AE.

The Linguistics of Sound and Vowel Theory

Mater lectionis derives out of the limited number of ways in which vowels can be formed by human speech. See the Wikipedia Online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matres_lectionis

Early Vowel Theory

As Goldstein notes at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matres_lectionis -

Indian grammarians as early as the 7th century already divided vowels into three distinct types:
(1) palatal (so-called "mouth vowels")
(2) labio-velar (so-called "lip vowels")
(3) pharyngeal (so-called "throat vowels")

Modern Vowel Theory

Modern linguistics has expanded this list to four types of vowels:
(1) palatal ("mouth vowels")
(2) velar ("lip vowels")
(3) uvular ("tongue vowels")
(4) pharyngeal ("in the throat")

The Egyptian Vowel-Type Hieroglyphs mark Vowel Sounds

What we have discovered in the most ancient Pharaonic Egyptian hieroglyphs is that their makers recognized four qualities of vowel-type sounds - and consciously selected homophonic (same-sounding) symbols to mark these sounds - sounds which are similar in function to modern linguistic vowel theory, but of course not as advanced in their nature 5000 years ago.

These four vowel-type sounds in ancient Egypt were:

1. The Breath Sound - the "LEAF, reed LEAF" Hieroglyph
2. The Throat Sound - the "EAGLE" (vulture) Hieroglyph
3. The Nasal Sound - the "CHICKEN" Hieroglyph
4. The Palatal Sound - the "BENT ARM" Hieroglyph

In order to represent these "vowel-types" with symbols, the makers of the hieroglyphs - on the basis of the evidence of the Indo-European language, e.g. on the basis of Latvian lexical comparisons, selected symbols which were pronounced similarly - i.e. were homophonic - to the vowel sound description.

The Four Pairs of Homophonic Hieroglyphs and Vowel Sound Functions

The following four pairs of words are homophonic in Latvian - and fit the Egyptian hieroglyphs perfectly. I find that these same homophonic pairs are found clearly in the Egyptian hieroglyphs:

1. ALPA (whence ALPHA) viz. ELPA "breath" and LAPA viz. VARPA "leaf, ear" whence also VARPATA "couch-grass, dog grass". (Note that the later alphabet used the steer symbol for Alpha, a steer in Latvian being LUOP, also a word homophonic to ALPA. In ancient Old Kingdom Egypt, the "leaf" or "reed leaf" symbol thus represented the "breath sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs.

2. IERIKLIS ("in the throat") and ERGLIS "eagle" (vulture in Egypt). The "eagle" viz. "vulture" symbol thus represented the "throat sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs.

3. UOSTA ("smell, smeller, of the nose") and VISTA "chicken". The "chicken" symbol thus represented a "nasal sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs.

4. ROKA ("bent, arm") and LOKA "bent, pliable, flexible", supple"). The "bent arm" thus represented a "palatal (bent) sound" in the ancient hieroglyphs. Even today LOCISHANA in Latvian is applied as a word in linguistics, applying to declension and conjugation.

Consequence of the Hieroglyphic "Vowel-Sound" Discovery

This above discovery now permits us to recognize that the hieroglyphs were not just chance symbols selected at random or because of religious or other considerations, but were selected primarily for their pronounced SOUND as being similarly sounding - homophonic - to an intended linguistic sound FUNCTION.

Accordingly, we will expect a similar intelligence and rational reasoning to be at work in the formulation of the the remainder of the hieroglyphs, also for the "consonants" (which - as wel will see - were seen combined with vowel sounds). Even though the ancients did not have the precise equivalent concept of "consonant" in ancient days, they recognized similar sounds.

An explanation of the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptian "alphabet" will soon be forthcoming.

Indo-European Roots and Latvian I - LexiLine Journal 287

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, which is reproduced at
http://www.bartleby.com/61/ contains an up-to-date list of Indo-European roots.

That same source has an article on "Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans" by Calvert Watkins at http://www.bartleby.com/61/8.html

To illustrate how close Latvian is lexically to proto-Indo-European, I just went through Watkins 7-page article and listed those hypothetical Indo-European roots (marked with an asterisk *) which are identical or nearly identical with Latvian. Most linguists do NOT know this kind of basic information about Latvian at all - they are incredibly ignorant and closed-minded in their own field, wallowing mostly in Greek and Latin and not paying attention to the evidence.

mainstream hypothetical
Indo-European Roots compared with still existing Latvian language

*do "give" = Latvian do (pronounced duo)
*ed "eat" = Latvian ed (Hittite ed-)
*ped "foot" = Latvian ped-
*es and *bheua- "expressing existence" = Latvian es ("I") esu ("am"),
bij-, bija "was"
*sen "old" = Latvian sen
*yeu- "youth" = Latvian jau-ns ("young")
*tu "you" = Latvian tu
*nes- "we" = Latvian mes
*yu- "you" = Latvian ju(s)
*persistent pronomial stems *to- and *ko = Latvian to and ko
*me- "measure" = Latvian me(r)
*sawel "Sun" = Latvian saule
*ster- "star" = Latvian stari "rays of light"
*aus- "East, to shine" = Latvian aus-trumi "East" aus-t "rise"
*nekt- "night" = Latvian nakt-
*sneigh "snow" = Latvian snieg
*deiw "divine bright sky, deus, God, Zeus" - Latvian diev-
*s(t)ena "thunder" = Latvian sitiena "strike, of a peal of thunder
*and lightning"
*dhghem- "earth" = Latvian zem- (dhgh = zh)
*ere "row" = Latvian aire
*ghwer "wild animal" = Latvain zver-
*vlko- "wolf" = Latvian vilku "of the wolf"
*wlp "fox" = Latvian lap-sa
*dhghu "fish" = Latvian zivu- "of the fish" (dhgh = zh)
*bhei "bee" = Latvian bi-te (also in ancient Egyptian bi-te)
*medhu "mead" = Latvian med- "honey"
*wi-ro "man" = Latvian vir-
*man "person" = Latvian man "mine, for me, for the self"
*mer- "to die" = Latvian mir-
*kerd- "heart" = Latvian sird-
*yek-r "liver" = Latvian ak-na
*s(w)e "self" = Lativan sev, sava
*mela "grinding" = Latvian mala
*egna "fire" = Latvian ugun, ugunis Latin ignis
*dhwer- "door" = Latvian dur- (Latvian caur, pronounced tsaur
= "through")
*nobh - "nobh" = Latvian naba
*kel-o "revolve, wheel" = Latvian cel-o "travel, road"
*wegh "vehicle transport" = Latvian vaga "rut"
*men- "mind" = Latvian min "mention", at-min "remember",
at-mina "memory"
reg- "tribal king" = Latvian rik-uo "lead, organize"
*legh- "law" = Latvian liek- "to set down", lik-ums "law,
lieg-t "forbid, prohibit", lik-t "bid, command"
Latin lex (Latvian legts "decided")

numbers (but these are pretty uniform in all Indo-European tongues)
*dwo = Latvian divi
*trei = Latvian tri(s)
*ketwer = Latvian chetri
*penke = Latvian pieci
*seks = Latvian sesh-
*septm = Latvian septin-
*okto(u) = Latvian asto-
*newn = Latvian dev-n-
*dekm = Latvian desm-

More on Indo-European roots will be forthcoming. Many hypothetical Indo-European roots are faulty, and we will be correcting them. Also some of the roots given above are not accurate and we will show where the errors have been made.

Indo-European Roots - Sources - LexiLine Journal 286

Reposted from LexiLine Journal 286.

>Hi, Andis - Following the Wipipedia link, I ran into this one on
>Root Words for Indo-European languages.

>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indo-European_roots

>Do any of these look Latvian to you?

>Thanks,
>Ina Mitchell

Dear Ina,

Your Wikipedia link points to alleged Indo-European roots in Pokorny, who is regarded by mainstream linguists to be an important source, although Pokorny's 1959 Indogermanisches Wörterbuch is outdated.

A list of sources on (proto)Indo-European is found at the Indo-European Lexicon at the University of Texas Linguistics Research Center
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/ielex/index.html
where it is written:

"Our project goal is to produce a large, heavily indexed collection of Indo-European (IE) "reflex" words having their inferred etymological origins in the reconstructed ancestral language Proto-Indo-European (PIE)."

The best easily available source for current mainstream views of Indo-European roots is the section "Indo-European Roots" in the appendices of various American Heritage dictionaries.

An up-to-date list of Indo-European roots is found online in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, which is reproduced at http://www.bartleby.com/61/

Important to read there for starters is the article "Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans" by Calvert Watkins at http://www.bartleby.com/61/8.html as well Indo-European Sound Correspondences http://www.bartleby.com/61/indoeuro.html and of course
The Indo-European Roots Index at http://www.bartleby.com/61/IEroots.html

Many of these alleged Indo-European Roots are correct, many are incorrect, and I will be getting into a detailed discussion of them in coming e-mails.

Enjoy,

Andis

What is Agglutination in Linguistics? - Language Structures in Estonian vs. Latvian Maja - House - Words for Colors - Property - Inheritance

Reposted from LexiLine Journal 284:

Bob Sand inquires as follows:

>Subj: Baltic languages agglutinative
>Date: 6/9/2004 3:14:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>From: bob sand <bad_sand2000@yahoo.com>
>To: LexiLine-owner@yahoogroups.com
>Sent from the Internet (Details)

>Are Baltic languages agglutinative? I was just thinking since they
are similar to Sumerian >and Akkadian and them being agglutinative,
then the Baltic languages are agglutinative.
>Can you answer that question?

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines agglutination in linguistics
see http://www.bartleby.com/61/2/A0140200.html as:

"The formation of words from morphemes that retain their original forms and meanings with little change during the combination process."

An example in English would be the forming of the word likeness from "like", by pasting "like" and "-ness" together. A similar example in English would be the glued on "-ance" in "inherit+ance" or "import+ance" or "maintain+ance", or the many -tion or -sion endings following words such as deci(de)+sion, exclamation, (exclaim+tion), and yes, even agglutination or inflection.

That same dictionary defines inflection in linguistcs see (http://www.bartleby.com/61/19/I0131900.html) as

"An alteration of the form of a word by the addition of an affix, as
in English dogs from dog, or by changing the form of a base, as in
English spoke from speak, that indicates grammatical features such
as number, person, mood, or tense.

The drawing of a strict dividing line between so-called agglutinative and inflected languages is a comfortable fiction of modern linguistics which is generally subject to the critique that foolish consistencies are the hobgoblin of little minds.

See http://www.fact-index.com/i/in/inflected_language.html

Latvian, just as English, has both agglutinative and inflected elements, which is not surprising, given its near neighborhood to Estonia. As is written at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_language

"Estonian is not, as is sometimes thought, in any way related to its nearest geographic neighbors, Latvian and Lithuanian, which are Baltic languages, but is related to Finnish, spoken on the other side of the Gulf of Finland, and Hungarian. It is not true, however, that the northern dialects of Estonian are sufficiently similar to Finnish for the two to be mutually intelligible...

Typologically, Estonian represents a transitional form from an agglutinating language to an inflected language.

Let us compare the word māja, which is "house" both in Latvian and Estonian (maja).

A yellow house in Estonian is kollane maja
A yellow house in Latvian is dzeltene maja viz. dzeltena maja
[The Nostratic root of koll- and dzel- will be the same]
The illative (locative case meaning "into") agglutinative in Estonian
in the case of the yellow house is formed by saying
kollasesse majasse
whereas the inflected locative in Latvian is formed by lengthening the final vowel
dzeltenā mājā
but also possible in Latvian is an agglutinative-like
dzeltenāsi mājās(i), which then of course looks like the Estonian.

Note that the colors (COL-ors) in Latvian [which are the words]
ZIL, ZAL, DZELT, ZELT
for blue, green, yellow and gold
are hardly differentiated,
showing a very old language status,
which of course is cognate to Estonian KOLL-,
and surely cognate with the English world COL-or.

Essentially, agglutinative means that isolated words are glued together for grammar whereas inflected means that words (especially word endings) are changed in form to reflect grammar.

A good example here is the Latvian word manta "property, thing owned" (also meaning "toy").

According to current erroneous mainstream linguistic analysis, Latvian manta is seen to consist of a root stem mant- meaning property plus the nominative inflected ending -a.

But of course, this view of [modern] mainstream linguistics is totally wrong.

As Franz Bopp, the founder of comparative linguistics, suggested more than 150 years ago - to the still deaf and ignorant ears and minds of modern linguists - inflection at the ends of words in Indo-European derives from the [agglutinative] affixation of isolated pronouns or other elements to other words.

In Latvian man- means "mine, to me, for me" and ta is a pronoun meaning "that". Hence the Latvian word manta "property" is actually made up of the components of man- and -ta as MAN.TA "mine that".

The same is true for the plural mantas, which is MAN.TAS [man- plus tās] "mine those".

We also see the English-based -sion or -tion ending (in Latvian as shini, shani, shana - very much like Akkadian and Hebrew) in the Latvian word mantošana (pronounced mantoshana), i.e. MAN.DUO.SHANA, meaning "inheritance", i.e. "me - give - that" viz. "mine - give - that".

Logically, Latvian mantota "inherited" is MAN.DO.TA "mine - given- that" viz. "me - give - that". There is - strictly speaking - no root "mant-" in Latvian meaning property, contrary to the opinions of modern linguists.

What modern linguists see as Latvian inflection is the product of previous agglutination.

Much more on ancient languages will be forthcoming on LexiLine. - Andis

Carnegie Mellon Scientists Crack Brain's Codes for Noun Meanings -- PITTSBURGH, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ --

Carnegie Mellon Scientists Crack Brain's Codes for Noun Meanings

"Identifying Thoughts Through Brain Codes Leads To Deciphering the Brain's Dictionary....

In effect, we discovered how the brain's dictionary is organized," said Just, the D.O. Hebb Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging. "It isn't alphabetical or ordered by the sizes of objects or their colors. It's through the three basic features that the brain uses to define common nouns like apartment, hammer and carrot."