Re: Harp
- From: lorad <lorad474@xxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 16:09:45 -0800 (PST)
On Jan 9, 7:55 am, Dušan Vukotić <dusan.vuko...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 9, 2:58 pm, lorad <lorad...@xxxxxx> wrote:
On Dec 31 2008, 7:03 am, Dušan Vukotić <dusan.vuko...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I just found these idiotic suggestions (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/cybalist/message/62306) proposed by our friend Piotr Gasiorowski
and couldn't resist...
Why wouldn't harp be related to grab/s-crib-, Greek grapho-, Slavic
*grab-, Greek drepanon "curved sword, scythe", Latin harpe "sickle-
shaped sword" = Slavic serp "sickle"; Russian царапать "scrabble,
scrape, crab". In a similar way, but now instead of grab or scratch,
guitar comes from the Greek deris "jangle, dispute", Serbian dodir-
ivati "run the fingers over", Czech udeřit "beat" Russian дрек
"grapple" (http://groups.google.com/group/sci.lang/msg/
8cf20b3f7360ceea?hl=en&), English thrum/drum(!). What I want to say is
that musical instruments are often named in accordance with the most
important characteristic they have, like, for instance, tympan,
probably from s-tump or Greek τύμπανον "kettledrum", Russian topot
"stump, clutter", Serbian top "cannon"; Serbian topot "horse clamp"....
DV
And I wish a happy New Year to everyone
Sometimes it's easier to go with the flow...
"harp
O.E. hearpe, from P.Gmc. *kharpon- (cf. O.N. harpa, Du. harp, O.H.G.
harpfa). L.L. harpa, source of words in some Romantic languages, is a
borrowing from P.Gmc. The verb is O.E. hearpian. "
PS: Your Slavic 'serp' and Russian 'царапать' are just borrowings from
Baltic 'sirpa' and 'raput' respectively.
Baltic? Lat. sirpis sickle; Lith. sirpti ripen
Russian царапина is Latvian scramba (scratch, scrape). Carapina/
carapat was subjected to a very unusual phonetic mutation. In Serbian
this word kept velar in initial place - grebati (scrape, scratch); or
it is a s- prefixed form za-grebati, iz-grebati (scrape). Obviously,
Latvian scramba is also s- prefixed *ghreb-. Can you explain it?
DV
sirpis/sirps/sirpa .. masculine and feminine
'Raput' eans 'to crawl'. Apparently russians think that crabs crawl
around... and who could blame them.
.
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