Get to the truth
Any work requires a reliable tool even if we decide to make a mental journey to the languages origins. The science of etymology seems to have been created in order to restore broken connections in the meanings of words. It is designed to look inside the form, in-form about the origin and meaning of the word, to tell about its metamorphoses what happened to this word once and what is happening to it now.
The word etymology (ττυμολογία) is a Greek word. It consists of two words: etymon (ττυμον) is the truth and logos (λόγος)is to speak. It was invented by ancient philosophers, who already understood perfectly well that without knowledge of the true meaning of the word, it is impossible to know the truth.
The first sound e indicates some kind of affiliation. In the words ego and ekho (echo), it explains that it is about the person. In the word eco is about something what surrounds person, about his\her home, environment. Behind the word etika (ethics) lies a reasonable, meaningful human activity. Even the word efir (ether) has its own identity literally, belonging to a hole filled with something invisible, but necessarily all-encompassing and all-pervading. The words Hellenic and Hellas are about places that belong to my favorite Greeks, where lada is in the same semantic field as the Russian lad (harmony).
In the word etymon (the meaning of the word), the protoroot mon is the key, which means that truth is unique and monarchical, as well as harmony. Mon is the only one who brings food, who is the master of offspring, and any other mn can not be. These are the harsh conditions of existence. This protoroot has generated a lot of words, which emphasize the separateness, uniqueness, exclusivity. It is sound in the words monakh (monk) and monarkh (monarch), in the names Solomon and Suleyman; it can be found in the word ataman (father, senior man) and in the word mongol (mon-Ka-le, nomad).
The brilliant Russian conductor Teodor Curentzis once said that harmony is a point. How right he is! Harmony is the point, the unity, of which the first biblical commandment speaks. So etymon is a unified understanding of our actions, our existence. This is the truth.
The second part of the word etymology goes back to the biblical logos (word). Academician Dmitry Likhachev has repeatedly warned that we understand or interpret some ancient texts incorrectly. In his opinion, the translation of the gospel text: In the beginning was logos (word\slovo)incorrectly conveys the meaning of the word logos. In the ancient Greek Dictionary of Joseph Dvornitsky, logos has 34 different nests of meanings. In our reading, this word goes back to three ancient roots: lo, kho and s. The first has the meaning beloved, the second is the sound of breathing-means dusha (soul), and the third means sacred water. What meaning could these sounds have acquired over the centuries? We can agree with academician Likhachev that we are talking about what distinguishes man from the animal world about the ability to think.
However, Likhachev could be wrong because as the great Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev said: A spoken thought is a lie. Fedor Ivanovich knew perfectly well that the ancient Greek word legu is translated as to speak, but in Russian it is interpreted quite differently. Still, lets focus on what is close to us. Etymology is the desire to get to the truth, to understand the meaning and essence of our being. Jesus Christ, pronouncing the Covenant: Verily I say unto you, I sincerely wanted people to get rid of lies, deception and delusions. So we are trying to understand and interpret the deep meaning of our language, our speech, our being.
Ancient prepositions
Wisdom teaches that if you are confused and cant find the right way, go back and start all over again. This technique is acceptable even for functional parts of speech: prepositions, conjunctions, particles and interjections. Modern science does not give an unambiguous understanding of how these words occurred and where to look for their primitive meanings. My heart tells me that they were born together with the protoroots and have a similar nature.
Lets start with the simplest the ancient preposition kin English to. If the sounds kh, g and"k came from the human breath, then the ancient preposition k belongs to this group. Its meaning is close to the meaning of way, directionwhere to go, what we will come to.
The preposition oin English aboutgot its meaning not so much from the pronounced sound, but from the shape of the lips in which it is formed around, about or about something.
The ancient preposition uin English near, being the sound of breathing, had a special connotation it attracted the attention of a tribesman to some circumstance, phenomenon, object. It is the sound of moaning, the sound of crying. This is an invitation to come closer, to share others in your pain. Its later values are near or around or otherwise marked accessory, the closeness, the belonging to someone, a sense of ownership.
The sound ain English [a] was always the sound of an open mouth. It can have a variety of meanings. In combination with the sounds of feeding, it forms a combination of ma or na, indicating the desire to eat, the readiness to take food. A child will never ask to be fed with a combination of m and o sounds. The same applies to the combination of na, which we pronounce when we offer food to the child. By the way, I have repeatedly seen that a child, when holding out his hands to food, also utters a cherished and kind na, as opposed to a restrictive no (but).
Oddly enough, the ancient preposition poin English atis also formed from the sounds of breathing. P is the sound of puffing, the sound of locking the lips and then releasing the air with a little effort. Its either puffing or farting. Over time, this sound has grown more complex meanings, has passed through centuries of evolution and now it denotes what surrounds us. The later meaning along appeared during numerous human journeys. But at the time when the first sounds and meanings were put into speech, people lived in burrows, and the preposition po had a very modest scale.
The preposition sin English withoriginally went back to the sounds of drinking and the protoroot ms. In some languages, the meaning of the words drink, water has retained the sound m, in otherss. The Japanese have preserved the root completely. In Hebrew, both the word sea and the word water retained the m sound. In Turkic languages su means water, in Englishsea. However, the question remains, how was the preposition s formed with the meaning together? Most likely, its origin was connected with the rules of hunting, or some rules of visiting a water hole, or with the ancient instinct of emptying the bladder together.
In general, the combination the sounds of puffing and water in ancient times formed the root ps. It is found in many languages around the world as well as protoroot pkh. Protoroot pr is also the sound of puffing, but not simple, but aggressive, when something is pierced or flatulence is released too deliberately.
In general, the combination the sounds of puffing and water in ancient times formed the root ps. It is found in many languages around the world as well as protoroot pkh. Protoroot pr is also the sound of puffing, but not simple, but aggressive, when something is pierced or flatulence is released too deliberately.
Finally, derived from the breath sounds include protoroot ku. If taken literally, it meant at the head, near the head, something intelligent. Over time, it received several values. For example, the meaning of ruka (hand) is separate from the head but with understanding. From this root came such words as kulak (fist), kul`tya (stump\an amputated arm), kul`tura (culture). And the name Akulina since ancient times had the meaning inept, crooked, and this is inherent in the name, where the sound a is a certain opposite. The protoroot ru also has its origins. If u is near, then the aggressive r was intended to separate from this near, to become separate.
There are a number of prepositions, phonemes, and protoroots those are associated with the action of a person, with his\her contact with the environment, penetration into it. In this regard, the preposition vin English in\into\insideis interesting, it means effort, tension, desire to get inside something. It is directly related to the extraction of insects or small animals from hidden places: whether it is the stem of a plant, or the trunk of a tree, or a mink in the ground. Ancient man needed not only to search for food, but also to be able to extract it by looking inside. This explains why both the Russian word zhivot (belly) and the Latin word vita have the main sound v.
You can make out one of the forms of the preposition vthe basic word vnutri (inside). The sound n indicates the taste of food, protoroots tr-dr goes back to aggressive poking, or, simply, holed something or pierced. Protoroot dr is a hole where delicious food is hidden and you need to get to it. The ancient preposition v is also echoed by the sound b, which is related to it. In many cases, it expresses a kind of passionate satisfactionboth from the food taken, and from other pleasures, including sexual ones.
The possibility of penetration and contact brought to life the ancient prepositions toin English thatand do (in English this). The t sound was a poking sound that indicated obstacles. These obstacles, as in a dense forest, can be around-hitting branches on the cheeks, blocking the way with tree trunks or making you stumble over rocks. Only after looking around and getting used to it, you begin to definitely designate a place with an obstacleto (that) place, eto (this) place.
In the preposition k, the sonorous sound d only strengthens this meaning. Do is already a more serious obstacle, restriction, pillars of Hercules, beyond which movement is impossible. The meaning of this preposition has been preserved to this day, although it has expanded over the course of evolution, and received different shades, but the original meaning limited pokinghas been preserved in it.
Many different derived combinations have appeared from the original forms of these ancient prepositions. Vowel sounds complemented the meanings. The language was filled with various to, ta, te, tam, do, da. The last da is particularly interesting. The sound of a poke, an obstacle, coming into contact with an open vowel a, completely changes like Cinderella after the wave of a magic wand. The vowel a indicates that the insurmountable obstacle, as it seemed at first, is no longer an obstacle, and the dirty rags have been replaced by a ball gown.
Da is consent, the abolition of borders, the abolition of obstacles. You mustnt, but you can! This protoroot was very common in the everyday life of our forefathers, having the meaning of consent in sexual relationships. Da is permission for sexual contact. Already in those early days, the meaning of consent became associated with the possibility of coitus, that is, access to womans sexual organs, and later with the female sexual organ. This meaning of consent to mating and the name of the female sexual organ formed many words that have survived to our time.
Obstacles served as the beginning of the appearance of the do and no roots, becoming a common mechanism for their appearance. Still, if the do meant a restriction, then the protoroot no, as opposed to the open na, was perceived as an objection or denial.
You can practice word formation using the oldest roots. Let do be a limited poking, a certain limit, and no is an objection, a negation. Combining them, we get the word dono dno (bottom) that has been preserved to our time. It turns out that dno is the absence of a limit: a person pokes a stick into the water, and the stick does not rest anywhere. There is no stop, no limit. There is no dodeep to it. Now this word has the opposite meaning: a certain surface, a stop under water. But in the names of rivers, this combination of ancient prepositions had original meanings. Dono is a property of deep rivers that could not be forded. Donono limit, no bottom, it is deep. This original meaning is preserved in the ancient word Avaddon (Abaddon), which basically refers to the abyss. There are many toponyms\place names with this dono on the planet: the Don (river), Caledonia, Dongola, London, and hundreds of others.
Allowing yourself to experiment, you can play with the vowel athe sound of food. If we take the same ancient preposition do, and put the protoroot na before it, we get the word nado (to need\must), which spoils everyones mood and forces them to mobilize all their personal resources. What is nado? This is a kind of sweet need, which is in the way of satisfying the ill-fated do is an obstacle. As a result, nado became a symbol of overcoming. Given that na has the meaning of something located on top, we can interpret this word as an action over the limita very common phenomenon of Russian life, which does not choose long paths, but goes through the mountains
About the mountain beginning say protoroots ay [aɪ] and ya. They are often found in the names of mountains, ridges or mountain rivers. The combination of the sounds y and a is formed when we look up. If a person raises his head at the same time when pronouncing any sounds, then the vowels first of all, the a sound come out unhindered. But as soon as the trachea bends, interrupting the air, a i sound appears. From this movement of the head two ancient protoroots appeared: ay is a movement up, ya is a movement down. Or simply: ayat the top, yafrom top to the bottom.
There is a beautiful example to understand how words appeared in ancient times this is the English word ice, consisting of two roots: ay and s. The first signified upward movement, the second is water. Where above could there be water? Only in the mountains, on icy snow-capped peaks. Therefore, the word iceeven without translation means frozen on the tops of mountain water. Protoroot ay gave the name of the white color. Where could the ancient people see the white color? Only on the snow-capped peaks of high mountains.