Showing posts with label Hebrew. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hebrew. Show all posts

Monday, 27 February 2023

How old is the Irish language?

How old is the Irish (Gaelic) language? Why am I asking this? Because there is something very interesting in the Irish language, which can possibly help us determine when and where this language had originally developed...This:




This image shows a person standing at the door of his house. The door is facing east. What is astounding is how these words for direction of movement and orientation match in the Irish (Gaelic) language...

This language characteristic can only be explained if we assume that this part of the Irish language was developed by the culture which lived in a world which faced east...Where facing east was something everyone did every day...

Like if their houses were built in such a way that the house entrances faced east...

It turns out that most rectangular [Irish] Neolithic houses had east facing entrances...

The same goes for the Irish Bronze Age round houses, which were also predominantly built with their doors facing East or South East...

So if you were a person living in this kind of the world, then your language will naturally develop in such a way that North is Leftward, South is Rightward...

I can't see any other reason why such a strange cultural trait would develop...Can you?

So when did this part of the Irish language develop? 

During Neolithic, 4th - 3rd millennium BC?
During Bronze Age, 3rd - 1st millennium BC?

Irish dictionaries





Neolithic houses



Bronze Age houses


PS: The only other culture where I found something similar is Hebrew culture...


"An examination of Iron Age buildings and settlements in ancient Israel indicates that a large number of them were oriented toward the east, while the west was extremely under-represented...

An examination of various climatic and functional considerations does not seem to explain the phenomenon. But ethnographic studies, show that cosmological principles can have on the planning of buildings and settlements, and that in many cases the east is preferred...

The common Biblical Hebrew word for east is qedma (forward), while the west is ahora (backward). Additional words for these directions indicate that the east had a good connotation while the west had a bad one...

Thus, the archaeological pattern, along with language and texts (which are used as a substitute for human informants), seem to give an important insight into some of the cosmological principles of the ancient Israelites"...

I want to thank @ainiladra for pointing me to this table found in "Handbook of Ugaritic Studies" by Wilfred Watson and Nicolas Wyatt, which shows that exactly the same overlap between the sides of the world and directions found in Gaelic, is also found in Ugaritic, Akkadian, Hebrew and Arabic...And it obviously dates to at least the Bronze Age... 



Friday, 1 November 2019

Neda

Neda (Νέδα) is a river in the Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. It begins on the southern slope of Mount Lykaion, near the village of Neda and flows into the Gulf of Kyparissia, a bay of the Ionian Sea. It is the only river in Greece with a feminine name. 


Strabo remarks that "Neda is the name of a river that comes down from the Arcadian mountains and its well springs were opened by Rhea who came there to get purified after she had given birth to Zeus" 


Interestingly Hebrew word 'Nida' denotes impurity of the woman during her menstruation period, or after giving birth, and in the scriptures we find expression "Nida waters" denoting unpurified waters??? 

Pausanias claimed "River Neda receives near Phigali the 'stream of impurity' Lumax which derives its name from the purification of Rhea". The Greek "lumax" is exact translation of the Hebrew "Nida"! 

Lumax (the river of impurity) flows into Neda (the river Rhea used for purification after giving birth to Zeus) near the town of Phigali. Pic: Temple of Apollo in Phigali, Karl Briullov Oil Painting 



According to Victor Bérard the name Phigali sounds like Hebrew word "Phigul" (stench, filth) which is synonymous with impurity (defilement)??? 

Jewish law, has very specific rules related to impurity after child birth. They are spelled out in Leviticus 12 entitled "Purification After Childbirth" 


So in Arcadia, Peloponnese, the river of impurity flows into the river of purification at the place of defilement??? All Hebrew words??? All connected with the ritual purification of Rhea??? Comments? 

Thursday, 19 January 2017

Golem and Gavra

Prague golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from inanimate matter (specifically clay or mud). The oldest stories of golems date to early Judaism. In the Talmud, which was compiled between 200 AD and 500 AD. In Sanhedrin 38b we read that Adam was initially created as a golem (גולם) when his dust was "kneaded into a shapeless husk". Like Adam, all golems are created from mud, but no anthropogenic golem is fully human. What distinguishes a golem from a human is golem's inability to speak. 

Sanhedrin 65b describes Rava creating a man. He sent the man to Rav Zeira. Rav Zeira spoke to him, but he did not answer. Rav Zeira said, "You were created by the sages; return to your dust"

Now word used for man in the above story is "gavra". So man, golem that can talk, is in Hebrew called "gavra". Which is very interesting considering that in Slavic languages word "govor" means "speech". And "govori ja" means "I speak". So in Slavic languages gavra means exactly what it supposed to mean: someone that can talk, not golem, man...

How is this possible?

Does the word "gavra" has the meaning in Hebrew that is related to talking? And if not, how is it possible that this Slavic expression ended up in ancient Hebrew?

O and by the way, the word "golem" in Slavic languages means "big", "large", "huge", "giant". The word comes from Proto-Slavic *golěmъ meaning "big", "large", "huge", "giant"....Wasn't golem supposed to have been much bigger and much stronger than a normal human?



Curiouser and curiouser...