Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)

Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 32, a test (two)

Now for my evidence that the name Pelasgians comes
from PE LAS 'near mountain', and pelagos 'sea' from
PE LAC 'near lake'.

The plain of Larisa in Thessaly is called Pelasgiotis.
In the north of the Pelasgiotis we find the mountains
Ossa (nearly 2000 m) and Olympus (nearly 3000 m),
in the south Dimini, probably once on the shore of
the bay. This river plain, I believe, was the forming
place of the Greek spirit some 5,000 years ago
(era of Dimini), with the gods taking seat on Mount
Olympus, and the sea being explored from the bay
of Pegasai. The name PE LAS 'near mountain' would
refer to Mount Olympus as the abode of the Hellenic
gods and goddesses. All Greeks would owe their
civilization to the formation that took place in the
Pelasgian plain, and so they all are Pelasgians.

An area in the north of ancient Macedonia is called
Pelagia. This would come from PE LAC 'near lake'
and refer to the big lakes in Macedonia. Later on,
the word LAC would have been expanded to the sea,
therefore pelagos 'sea', as the river god Poseidon
became the god of the seas.

Now if the Philistines and Pelasgians were the same,
and if the Philistines settling on the shore of Palestine
were called for a mountain, this would have been the
mountain of Judah, only about thousand meters high,
but enemy land, therefore higher (more important) in
a psychological sense. The one-eyed giant Polyphem
who resembled more a wooded mountain top than
a man who eats bread in Homer's Odyssey is, in my
opinion, a symbol of Troy. Now the acropolis of Troy
wasn't especially high, but the fierce enemy therein
made it appear high and fearful as a mountain. We
find the mountains also in the story of the Philistine
Goliath and of David: Goliath stands on a mountain,
David and the whole army of Israel stand on another
mountain ... The same effect of psychological elevation
of mountains is found in old drawings - the mountains
are always too high, as if the physical effort of climbing
a mountain went in the representation (compare an old
drawing of a landscape with a mountain range on the
horizon with a photograph from the same vantage point).
In that sense the animosity between Philistines and the
dwellers of the mountain of Judah could have turned
the mere hills into an actual mountain range, thus
justifying the word Philistines in the sense of PE LAS
'near mountain'. Also, it would have been a reference
to the Pelasgian plain Pelasgiotis, formating area of
the Greek civilization, presumably also the cultural
background of the Philistines who settled in Palestine.

Now there is a test case for my Magdalenian approach.
Tell me a clear example of where Pelasgians can't go
along with mountains ...

Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

..
..

Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 31, a test (one)

In the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual UCLA
Indo-European Conference (2002) I find a contribution
by Jon Christian Billigmeier, _Crete, the Dorians, and
the Sea Peoples_. Quote:

Several of the Peoples of the Sea ara fairly securely
identified with nations known elsewhere. The Pa-ra-sa-ta
are surley the Philistines, familiar from the Bible and
historical documents of the 1st millennium BC. Christopher
Wilhelm (2000) has assembled a substantial array of
evidence to support Albright's view that the Philistines
and Pa-ra-sa-ta are identical with the Pelasgians of
Greek tradition (Albright 1934).

(Footnote:) One wonders if both these names are
connected with the Greek word pelagos 'sea'. This
could be Greek of a loanword from another Indo-
European language, akin to Lat. _planus_, NE _flat_
and, with the same velar extension as Greek, to NHG
_flach_. For the sense, one can compare Lat. _aequor_
'flat surface', 'plain', 'desert', 'sea'. If so, the Philistines/
Pelasgians are literally the Sea People! This may not
have been originally an ethnic term at all, but a generic
designation for all those dwelling on and living from the
sea. That would explain why one finds Pelasgians
mentioned as having lived all over the Aegean and why
many Greeks are often said to have been Pelasgians.

I found a completely different explanation of Pelasgians
and pelagos. PE LAS --- near (pe) mountains (las),
PE LAC --- near (pe) lake (lac), and I shall present my
evidence in the next message ('cos Google swallows
my posts when I spend to much time on writing them).

.
.

Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 30, A new approach to paleolinguistics (delta)

What I said about the two approaches to early language
also holds for early mathematics and geometry. You can
try to understand it via modern methods and notations
(top down), or you may try to forget all and begin anew
(bottom up). I chose the latter approach. What can one
achieve playing with numbers and using very simple
additive algorithms? Back in 1979 I found the following
pattern I call a number column:

1 1 2
2 3 4
5 7 10
12 17 24
29 41 58
70 99 140 and so on

Add a pair of numbers and you get the number below.
Double the first number of a line and you get the last
(third) number. Using this column you can calculate
squares and octagons. Later on I found more number
columns, and further simple additive algorithms that
allow to calculate amazingly precisely with whole
numbers instead of fractions - even a systematic
method for the calculation of the circle resembling
the one of Archimedes but much simpler and more
easily accessible, and when I looked around about
the legacy of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia I found
ample evidence for all my playfully reconstructed
algebraic and geometric methods. When I published
my results I was attacked by academic heavyweights,
and now that I use the same playful approach in the
case of early language I am getting attacked again.
But I know that my approach works, and won't let
anyone bully me off my way.

.
.

Appendix to the glossary of the new Magdalenian words,
part 29, A new approach to paleolinguistics (gamma)

Imagine standing on top of a steep hill and looking down
on a tree. What do you see? the crown, plenty of leaves.
This is the way most people look at language: from the
top, watching the crown, studying the leaves, guessing
from them at twigs, branches, and the trunk. I chose
another way to study language: walking around the hill,
down the slope, and now I look at the majestic tree
from below, where I see the big trunk, mighty branches,
plenty of twigs, and some of the leaves ... The trunk
in my metaphor is the biological necessity of language;
the branches, twigs and leaves are the many forms of
language; and the leaves of the crown you study from
above are human languages with all their many words
and grammatical forms. From my vantage point I can
hardly see those leaves, but I can see the structure
of the tree, and touch the bark of the trunk. Come
down and have a look at the tree from below. It's a
phantastic view, worth studying as well as the crown.
Why don't some of you join me? the top of the hill is
crowded, while there is plenty of place down here,
you can make discoveries, and then you may combine
your knowledge of the crown with the view from below.

.

.

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