Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)

Glossary of the new Magdalenian words, part 2, continuation
of the introduction

Please consider my work an experiment in paleo-linguistics.
My question: what are the possibilities of an early language
that used words of one or two or three letters? Richard P.
Feynman said that it doesn't make sense when thousand
scientists tackle the same problem using the same set of
methods - at least someone should try another way. I am
the one who tries another method: Instead of tracing words
back according to phonetic laws - which, I believe, often
fail when it comes to a time horizon of over 10 000 years -
I propose synthetical words and follow them along the arrow
of time, looking out for traces they may have left in recent
languages.

Instead of phonetic laws I use a method of my own to
ponder the possible evolution and development of words:
I pronounce them silently, over and over and over again,
without giving voice, but formulating them with tongue
and lips and jaw. Not giving voice is crucial here. When
I voice the words, the phonetic system of the brain sets
in and takes control, keeps the words in their respective
place of the verbal morphospace. Yet when I don't voice
the words, they can drift away, and tell me about possible
ways of their evolution.

The roman letters were phonems of the Latin tongue.
Please pronounce my Magdalenian words as if in Latin,
especially the vowels. C can be Z but also and mostly
K, as in REC and CER. There are two special sounds.
One is an L-click. Let the tip of your tonge move along
the palate, and then let your tongue smack into its wet
bed. The result is a fairly loud click, indicated as !L in
my previous messages, indicated as ) in the following
ones. The other special sound is produced by touching
the lips with the tip of the tongue, indicated as -:

In the first part of the introduction I said that I shall give
my words in more or less the same order as I found them.
Now I must correct myself. I tried to arrange them more
logically and thus the chronological order is sometimes
broken up. The order of words I have now is in between
chronological and logical - neither this nor that, I fear.
But my hypothetical words will be much easier to look
up in the glossary than when you - my interested reader
who may find my thread in around 2011 or 2012 - have
to look them up in the mess of the previous messages.

Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch



Glossary of the new Magdalenian words, part 1, introduction

Let me begin with my definition of language from 1974/75:

Language is the means of getting help, support and
understanding from those we depend upon in one way
or another --- and every means of getting help, support
and understanding may be called language, on whatever
level of life it occurs.

Language, then, is a basic feature of life, and so I assume
that langue evolves the same way as the life forms do.
Human evolution occurs mainly outside the body, in
culture, and so the language we use goes beyond body
language, yet the mechanisms of evolution in human
language are the same. I follow the evolutionary model
proposed by Nils Eldrege and Stephen Jay Gould on the
basis of earlier authors: a new species arises in a relatively
short period of time (punctuation of the equilibrium) and
can then persist basically unchanged for eons (stasis).

Homo erectus may have communicated via humming.
Neanderthals had high melodic voices. The language of
Homo sapiens sapiens of the Middle Stone Age, Blombos
cave, South Africa, 75 000 BP, may have consisted of
words of one or two letters, for example

KA --- sky, beyond, what is out of our reach, also inside
rock, a well, deep inside ourselves, accessible to a shaman
in a trance

KU --- woman, life-giver

A or AA or A-A --- water, thirst, to drink

(AN --- hunger // ED --- eat)

I may ponder the possibilities of a language that makes use
of one- or two-letter words in the spring of 2007. Last year,
in the spring of 2005, I pondered the possibilities of mainly
three-letter words, first in a playful and intuitive way, then
on the basis of two laws that soon emerged: inverse forms
have related meanings, and further permutations yield words
around the same meme. This year, in late winter and early
spring (my linguistic season), I went for more words and
found two more laws: D-forms are comparated in S-forms,
and important words can have lateral associations. All four
laws together:

1) inverse forms have related meanings
2) permutations yield words around the same meme
3) D-forms are comparated in S-forms
4) important words can have lateral associations

Using these four laws I systematically mined words and
found, all in all, some 500 new words. Together with the
some 400 or 500 words from last year we have now some
thousand Magdalenian words, enough to be used as a
working language, although many words are still missing.

Some of my words must have been in use in the time of
the Chauvet cave, 32 000 - 30 000 BP, for example

PAD --- activity of feet, to go, pad along, pad pad pad
pad ... (onomatopoetic)

comparative PAS --- everywhere (in a plain)

CA --- sky

Poster Holly identified the oldest writing known so far
in the Brunel chamber of the Chauvet cave, a domino
five, with my hypothetical PAS for everywhere. The
additional dot next to the upper right dot may be read
as CA for sky:

O O O
O
O O

PAS CA --- may the bison-man (represented on the
stalactite in the center of the rear hall of the Chauvet
cave), supreme ruler of the Lower Rhone valley, be born
again (by the Venus on the same stalactite) among the
stars of the Summer Triangle (indicated by her vulva),
and roam the sky as he now roams the earth ...

Once a word was established, the inverse form was
given a related meaning, then further permutations
were given words around the same meme, and when
a group of six permutations was filled up, one resorted
to lateral associations when needing more words

My method allows to ponder groups of words instead of
single words, and thus to retrieve much more information:
inverses of 2 words, permutation groups of 4 and often 6
words, permutation groups of 6 D-forms and 6 comparated
S-forms, yielding 12 words around the same meme, and
the largest group I found, including lateral associations,
counts 72 words, around the key-words

DAI --- a camp, represented by recangular forms

SAI --- life, existence, represented by lines and fields
of dots

The fully developed stage of that language would have been
reached in around 15 000 BP, an epoch called Magdalenian,
and so I call my hypothetical language Magdalenian, because
I like the word. Its core area would have been the Guyenne,
or the Franco-Cantabrian space.

In the following messages I shall present my new words
in a more systematic order than before, but still more or
less in the way I mined them.

The words from last year can be found in my thread "Lascaux,
a lunisolar calendar." That calendar was the reason why I went
for an experimental reconstruction of Magdalenian, and my
linguistic experiment led me to a late Magdalenian calendar,
as you already know, or shall see later on.




While preparing a glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 24, a further group of six words, and some additions

The thread "Albanian inherited lexicon (...)" made me go for
the permutations of POT for ruler. Here is what I found:

POT --- ruler; ancient Greek potnia for a female ruler,
despotaes for ruler, despoina for a female ruler, lady of
the house, Despoina was a powerful goddess, her secret
name was Nyx, alter ego of Gaia, Latin potentia and
potestas for power (...), English potency and power

TOP --- place and rank, where a ruler lives, also his rank;
ancient Greek topos for place, rank, English top for a place
and position, top of a hill, top of the social pyramid

TPO --- appearance, composure and splendor of a ruler;
ancient Greek typos for appearance, form, shape (...)

OPT --- a ruler presenting himself, herself; ancient Greek
optasia for appearance, optanomai for to let oneself be
seen, Latin optimus for the best

PTO --- a ruler spreading influence; ancient Greek peitho
for I persuade (...), patis for step, path, petomai for to speed,
hurry, fly - consider the bird as emblem of a ruler, birdman
of Lascaux, the bird goddess of Old Europe and predynastic
Egypt, the Horus falcon of dynastic Egypt, the Eagle as
emblematic animal of the USA

OTP --- how a ruler paves the way; ancient Greek odopoieo
for I pave the way

POT and permutations may be lateral associations to PAD,
comparative PAS, and their permutations.

I gave PAC for horse, PEC for game, goat, ibex. PIC may
be the word for bird. inverse CIP for pole, phallus, consider
the phallus of the birdman in the Lascau cave, and the
bird on a pole, both in the pit of the cave.

Humming might have been the language of Homo erectus,
I postulated in an earlier message. As evidence I quoted
Latin homo for human, many Greek words, and English
me for I, French moi for je. I missed a fine version: OM
of the chanting Brahmans, a sound that makes your body
vibrate ...


.

Relevant Pages

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