Sunday 31 March 2019

Kurban

Ah this is brilliant. Another linguistic mystery...In my article "Aries must die" I talked about St George's day rituals from Serbia of which the most important one is sacrificing of a male lamb to St George


Animals sacrificed as part of the religious rituals in Serbia are not picked at random and seem to be in sync with the sequence of animals on zodiac solar wheel. I talked about this in my post "Sacrificial animals".


Animals were in Serbia not just sacrificed during religious celebrations. Every new build required a blood sacrifice. A lamb or a cockerel was slaughtered on the foundation stone as well as on the walls just before the roof was put up. I talked about this in my posts "New house" and "Mountain Serbs from Montenegro".


This blood sacrifice is known as "krvavljenje" (blood spilling), Serbian "krv" (blood). The word "okrvaviti" means to "spill blood on something", to "stain with blood", like in this ritual performed on Rooster  day in Bulgaria when house walls are smeared with cockerel blood for protection.



These blood spilling sacrificial rituals are in the Balkans also known as "kurban", which means "victim, sacrifice". Official etymology: from Ottoman Turkish "kurban", from Arabic قُرْبَان (qurbān).

Arabic "qurbān" (sacrifice to God, sacrificial animal, victim) comes from Aramaic "qurbānā" (offering, oblation, sacrifice, Eucharist, gift).

This is an Aramaic amulet depicting Abraham’s Sacrifice of Issac


Aramaic "qurbānā" is related to Hebrew "qorbān (ritual sacrifice, as of an animal, victim). Etymology: from Proto-Semitic.

This is a four-horned altar, 9th-8th centuries B.C.E. Beersheba, southern Israel. Interestingly it looks very much like Minoan altar...

The proposed Semitic root is "qrb" (Hebrew: קרב) meaning "be near". It produces Hebrew "qorbān" (sacrifice), "qarov" (close), "qerovim" (relatives) and Akkadian "aqribtu" (act of offering)


 

Slavic word "krv" comes from Proto-Indo-European "kréwh₂" meaning blood outside the body (as of a wound).



The descendants are found in most Indoeuropean languages where they mean "blood, dead body, meet, raw, gore" 

Sanskrit क्रविस् (kravis) - raw, fresh, carrion 
Ancient Greek: κρέας (kréas) -  flesh, meet, carcass, body 
Germanic: hrawaz - raw, uncooked
Italic: *krowoðos - blood, gore, murder 
Balto-Slavic: *krowjos - blood 
Celtic: krowos - blood

Now what is very interesting is that the only Indoeuropeand languages which have preserved the original root "KRV" meaning blood are Serbian, Croatian and Macedonian. 

All the other Indoeuropean languages have altered the root because they could not pronounce it. I see this happening today when foreigners try to pronounce Serbian words which consist of only hard consonants. 

So they inserted vowel to separate KR and V. So KRV became KRAV or KROV or KRUV. They also replaced difficult to pronounce V with W and then with U and I. So KRV became KROW, KRU, KRI. Or they replaced difficult to pronounce K with H so KRV became HRAW, RAW. 

Sanskrit क्रविस् (kravis) - raw, fresh, carrion (krv -> kr(a)v + is)
Ancient Greek: κρέας (kréas) -  flesh, meet, carcass, body (krv -> kr(ea)w -> kre + s)
Germanic: hrawaz - raw, uncooked (krv -> kr(a)w -> hr(a)w -> raw)
Italic: *krowoðos - blood, gore, murder (krv -> kr(o)w -> kru)
Balto-Slavic: *krowjos - blood (krv -> kr(o)w -> kroy)
Celtic: krowos - blood (krv -> kr(o)w -> kr(u)w -> kru)

I believe that the original Indoeuropean root word "KRV" meaning blood underwent the same change in Semitic languages. They inserted vowels to separate the hard consonants and they also replaced difficult to pronounce V with B. 


And here is the million dollar question: How did this PIE root "KRV" meaning blood find its way into Proto-Semitic languages? And when did it happen? And why is it only preserved in South Slavic languages, which are, according to the official linguistics, the youngest Indoeuropean languages? 

9 comments:

  1. "Now what is very interesting is that the only Indoeuropeand languages which have preserved the original root "KRV" meaning blood are Serbian, Croatian and Macedonian.

    All the other Indoeuropean languages have altered the root because they could not pronounce it."

    (...)Serbian, Croatian and Macedonian (...) Are you sure?

    Poles have the word KReW = KReV = blood
    We have no problems with pronunciation word "krv" - why ? because the root krv=krw is present in a variation of this word and many derivative words;
    krew - (z) krwi
    krwionośny
    skrwawiony
    okrwawiony
    pokrwawiony
    wykrwawiony ...

    I think the same applies to Czechs and Slovaks
    krev - krve (czech)

    Word kr(e)v is not only preserved in South Slavic languages!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. in it's original nominative form "krv" it is. The other Slavic languages, as you rightly say, preserved it in other cases...

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    2. take a look at nomminativ plural:
      https://pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/krew
      krwie - it is archaic form, now practically not in use : exept the curse "psiekrwie" ( literally dog blood )- something like "Hell"

      Delete
    3. What does this mean:

      okrwawiony?

      It resembles Choctaw word for red: Okla, from which US state is named Oklahoma: red people.

      Delete
    4. Compare sound of Okla (red, in Choctaw) and Aqribtu (offering, in Akkadian) and Olah (burnt offering, in Hebrew) and Olha (forge, in Basque) and Altar (ceremonial offering site, in English), to Ochre, a pigment used ritually with lifel& death around the world for perhaps 100,000 years. Maybe also connected to horvat/cravat, a type of Balkan necktie?
      ---

      Re. Aramaic "qurbānā" is related to Hebrew "qorbān (ritual sacrifice, as of an animal, victim). Etymology: from Proto-Semitic.

      This is a four-horned altar, 9th-8th centuries B.C.E. Beersheba, southern Israel. Interestingly it looks very much like Minoan altar...

      The proposed Semitic root is "qrb" (Hebrew: קרב) meaning "be near". It produces Hebrew "qorbān" (sacrifice), "qarov" (close), "qerovim" (relatives) and Akkadian "aqribtu" (act of offering)

      Slavic word "krv" comes from Proto-Indo-European "kréwh₂" meaning blood outside the body

      Delete
    5. The root is o + krw = on + blood

      Delete
  2. 1.word "qerovim" sounds very similar to the name god of the war of the Polabian Slavs - Gerovit
    2.rot "ger" it is also a component of the word Germania

    ReplyDelete
  3. объект рассмотрения – смысловая пара:

    кровь (арх. кры); cruor [круор] (лат., один из вариантов) - кровь <-> круг, кружить, крутить (обращаться - кровообращение, циркуляция и т.п.).

    Сходные семантические параллели:

    - veri [вери, верь] (эст., фин.), vér [вер] (венг.)* - кровь <-> vuoro-vesi [вуоро-веси] (фин.) - прилив, досл., "оборот, циркуляция воды"; võru [выру] (эст.), piiri [пийри] (фин.) - круг, кольцо; вир, вiр (общеслав.) - водоворот - чрезвычайно важное слово, забытое в современном русском, но прекрасно сохранившееся почти во всех остальных славянских языках (= whirl [вирл] (англ.) - водоворот); также всё, связанное с вращением (вращать, ворота, вертеть, вёрткий, кувырок и т.д.);
    Ср. ùri (шумер.) - кровь;

    - blood [блад] (англ.) - кровь <-> flood [флад] (англ.) - прилив;

    - kik, kikel [кик, кикел] (майя, кекчи, киче) - кровь, семя; k'íik' [киик] (юкатекск.), ch’ich’ [чич] (цоцильск.), chik’y [чикы] (мамск., Гватемала) - кровь <-> ciclo [чикло] (ит.), cycle [сайкл] (англ.), κύκλος [киклос] (гр.) - цикл, круг, колесо; चक्र [cakra, чакра] (санскр.) - круг, колесо, диск.

    В связи с циркулированием, постоянным вбросом, вливом и оттоком назад и получилось славянское слово кровь, германское blood, угро-финское vér, veri.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very interesting. So many good connections! Thank you, Goran.

    ReplyDelete