Našite

Hittite language  was by Hittites called "nešili, našili, nišili"

This, presumably means "the language of Neša", an important Hittite Old Kingdom city...

But I have my doubts about this etymology...

Here is why:

In South Slavic languages:

Naš means "our"

Naši, Našite, Našinci, means "our people, our compatriots"

Naški, Našinski means "our language"

Now I can already hear you all shouting: "WTF DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HITTITE LANGUAGE?!?! F*UCKING SERBIAN NATIONALIST!!!"

Well...Hittite dictionary, page 396...

So is it possible that the Hittites called their language

Našili = Naš + ili = Our + adverbial suffix

Just like in South Slavic languages we call our languages

Naški = Naš + ski = Our + adverbial suffix

Which is why, in bilingual inscriptions, Našites used "našili" to mark lines written in "our language"...

After all, Našite (the alternative name for the Hittite language that never caught on) was an Indo-European language 🙂

Fly

(In Mesopotamia) "There are flies that bite like bulldogs everywhere. . . The flies are awful; one black web of them this morning; in one's hair and eyes and mouth, in one's bath and shaving-water, in one's tea and in one's towel..." From: "Mons, Anzac & Kut" by Aubrey Herbert

Why am I talking about biting flies of Mesopotamia? 

Cause in the Sumerian lexicon we can find this entry:

"muš4: a biting insect"

Which is very interesting...

Cause of this: 

Serbo-Croatian: mušica = fly, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *máušāˀ, from Proto-Indo-European *mus- 

Cognate with Lithuanian mùsė, dialectal musià, Latvian muša, Latin musca...

Sumerian is a language isolate, without any known descendants or related languages...but...Interestingly, in it we find some very important words which (look like they) are direct cognates with Words from Balto-Slavic branch of IE languages...

Like words for:

King, Scribe and Tablet, Mind, Breath, Life, Grain, Weevil (Grain eating insect), Teeth, Sickle

And now fly???

BTW, Akkadian, a Semitic language, also has some very interesting words with (what look like direct) cognates in Balto-Slavic languages...

Like words for:

Axe, Balance (This could actually be a Sumerian word, we don't know), Gown, Acorn and Oak, Blood and Sacrifice

There is no explanation for how these words can be found in Sumerian and Akkadian, some of the oldest known Non IE languages, and in Balto-Slavic languages, allegedly "the youngest branch of IE languages"...

So what happened here? Is this just a giant pile of coincidences? I mean it must be, right? 

Or maybe we should look at Hurrians of the Mitanni and their Indo-Iranian elite as a possible link here???

As I said, I don't know...I am just documenting all this here...

BTW, there are more interesting words to be added to this list...Soon...

Sekirica

The (most likely ceremonial) battle axe "sagaris" of the Scythian period, 7th century BC. The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (Russia)....

The sagaris (Ancient Greek: Σάγαρις) is an ancient Iranian shafted weapon used by the horse-riding ancient Saka and Scythian peoples of the great Eurasian steppe. It was used also by Western and Central Asian peoples: the Medes, Persians, Parthians, Indo-Saka, Kushans, Mossynoeci, and others living within the milieu of Iranian peoples. According to Aristarchus of Samothrace, the legendary Amazons used the sagaris, as well. In The Histories, Herodotus attributes the sagaris to the Sacae Scythians in the army-list of Xerxes the Great...

The word "σάγαρις" is apparently a "...foreign word without known etymology...but one would rather...expect Iranian origin, and it is probably a cognate to Latin secūris (broad axe) and Proto-Slavic *sekyra (broad axe)..."

Hmmm....

Slavic word for an axe is sekira (sikira). While sekirica (pronounced sekiritsa), sikirica (pronounced sikiritsa) means "little axe", from sekira (axe) with "ica" diminutive ending which put together means "small (head) axe"...

Sounds very much like "sagaris" right? Which was a small head axe on a long handle...Like Scythian battle axe...Is there any etymology for σάγαρις (sagaris) in Iranian languages I wonder...If not, is it possible that σάγαρις (sagaris) came into Ancient Greek via an intermediate (Proto) Slavic???

Anyway, It gets more interesting...Enter the Akkadians...

In Ancient Greek, the word for an axe was πέλεκυς (pelekus) and for axe handle was πέλεκκον (pélekkon)...Apparently:

"... πέλεκυς is often considered a Wanderwort (A loanword that has spread to many different languages, often through trade or the adoption of foreign cultural practices), because of the similarity to Arabic فَلَقَ‎ (falaqa) meaning to split apart which comes from Akkadian 𒁄 (pilakku, pilaqqu) meaning wooden handle; spindle, harp, which itself comes from Sumerian 𒁄 (balag) meaning wooden handle; spindle, harp; possibly a split piece of wood or wooden wedge..."

A Wanderwort you say...Well if πέλεκυς is a Wanderwort, why is σάγαρις not one too? Because

Bronze axe head, Akkadian, c. 2340-2200 BC, inscribed with owner's name. Akkadian 𒅆𒆕 "šukurru" (metal wedge, spear, axe)...Officially "not related" to Slavic sekira (axe), Latin secūris (axe) and Ancient Greek σάγαρις "ságaris", Scythian axe. 

Definitely is related...

One of the Akkadian words for "destiny" is "isqu" meaning "lot" which derives from "esēqu" (to make a drawing, to incise a relief) and specifically "to apportion lots"...Etymology of the Akkadian word from: "Luck, Fortune, and Destiny in Ancient Mesopotamia Or How the Sumerians and Babylonians Thought of Their Place in the Flow of Things"...

Which is very interesting, considering that in Slavic languages "sek" (From PIE "sek" meaning to cut) means "to cut",  and "isek" means "to to cut out, to apportion".

How are these words not related? When it comes to Ancient Greek πέλεκυς (pelekus), apparently "...some suggest that the Proto-Indo-European terms are ultimately borrowed from...Akkadian..." Is it possible that  Akkadian words with "sk" root were borrowed into Akkadian from som IE language? Considering that the "sk" root only exists in IE languages...

And interestingly, we again find link between Slavic and Akkadian...I talked about few more in my posts "Kurban", "Pelasgos", "Kaunakes", "Zib-Ba-An-Na"...

Strange...Slavic being "the youngest IE language branch" and all that...

Ishti

Sanskrit इष्टि ("ishti") - 1. Wish, desire. 2. A sacrifice, any sacrificial rite... 

This is the essence of "sacrifice": Hey God (insert name here), we want a lot of something, and in exchange, here is a bit of something...Fair enough?

People made God(s) in their own image, because it is easier to bargain with someone who has a human face, than with a faceless natural force...It is easier to pray for rain to a Rain God than to a cloudless sky...

Every prayer is a wish addressed to someone who we believe can fulfil it...And in exchange we give something in return, something we think is less valuable...Or promise to give at least...

Please mum, can I get...I promise I will...🙂

And so, once you humanise a natural force, you, being human, and knowing how humans work, naturally, try to cheat it, by performing "iṣṭi", a sacrifice...or promising to perform a sacrifice if you get what you want...That's called thanksgiving...

Please Rain God, give us rain when we need it and as much as we need it so that my grain granaries area again full this harvest time...In exchange here is a sacrificial bread, wine... Come and eat and drink it with us...

Fair enough?

So if the Rain God is a benevolent one, meaning if the climate is predictable and suitable for agriculture, then the rains will come when they are needed and as much as they are needed. The sacrificial feast seems to work...And this is what god keeps getting...

But if the Rain God is a grumpy f*ker, and the climate suddenly starts to wobble, and becomes unpredictable, and rains suddenly stop arriving when they are needed and as much as they are needed, the sacrifice changes...

Please Rain God, please give us some rain or my grain harvest will be bad and and my family will starve...We'll have to eat bloody acorns again...Here is a sacrificial animal...Come and eat it with us...

Some Rain Gods will be happy with the "smell of burned meet"...And they will supply rains when they are needed and as much as they are needed...But sometimes Rain Gods like to play hard...And sacrifice becomes the ultimate sacrifice...Human sacrifice...

Of course people wouldn't be people if they didn't try to cheat even at the brink of death...In its essence, even a human sacrifice, even a sacrifice of the first born children, was an attempt to bargain with god, to get a lot for a little...

Please Rain God, please give us some rain or my grain will wither and die and then my family will starve and die...Here is one of my children, please, give us rain so the rest of them will survive...

Terrible...But still in essence the same attempt to bargain with gods to get what we want ("ishti") for what we are willing to pay, sacrifice ("ishti")...

For the record:

According to the linguists, the Sanskrit इष्टि ("ishti") comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yaǵ-nós ("to sacrifice, worship") while the Serbian "išti" is the second person imperative of "ìskati" which comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂i-sḱé-ti ("to wish, request, search") and are apparently unrelated...

So why are all these dictionaries saying that this is one and the same word? 

According to the linguists, the fact that इष्टि (ishti) also means ("to wish, desire") is "a later semantic change" that developed because people did connect wishing and sacrificing, but that does not mean that they have the same origin...

Don't know...

Big man

This is Naram Sin, The Great king of Akkad, trampling his enemies...Appropriately, the Great King is depicted as a Big Man much bigger than his dead enemies...

Akkadians and their Great Kings, succeeded Sumerians as the rulers of Mesopotamia...And in Sumerian the word for "King" (see capital K) was  "Lugal" which comes from "lú" (man) + "gal" (big) and literally means a Big Man...

Now here is something "weird"...

In Serbian, the word for people is "ljudi", from Proto-Slavic *ľudьje (“people, men”)...

In Serbian, one of the words for big is "golem",  from Proto-Slavic *golěmъ...Cognate with Lithuanian "galėti" (to be able) and Lithuanian "galià"(power, might)

So coincidence that the roots are the same in Sumerian and Slavic? Again? Just like the roots for all these unimportant words:

Scribe, Tablet, Mind, Breath, Life, Grain, Teeth, Sickle

Just to be clear, Sumerian is a language isolate and has nothing to do with Slavic languages or any other Indo-European language for that matter...So what's going on here? Who borrowed all this from whom? Where? When? Or is this just an incredible coincidence...

Gal

There are several words in Serbian that mean black. 

The most common one is Crn, which comes from Proto-Slavic *čьrnъ...

Then we have the word Vran...This word means crow, raven in most Slavic languages, so the literal meaning is "like a crow, raven"...

Then we have the word Garav. This word comes from the word "gar" meaning soot, so literal meaning is "like soot"...

Then we have the word "Mrk" cognate with "mrak" (darkness). 

Finally we have a very little known word Gal. It comes from Proto-Slavic Galъ, and is of uncertain origin...

I would like to talk here about this word...

In dialectic dictionaries of Crna Trava region and South Morava region of Serbia we find these interesting words:

Gal - black, dark

Gal - raven

Galica, Galja, Galjka, Galjes, Galjča - black or dark brown cow or sheep.

Galati - make dirty, black (gal)

Galin - black (gal) horse
Gal, Galić - raven, black (gal) bird

Galjan - black, dark person, negro

Galičast - black (gal)
Galovran - black (galo) crow. This one is very interesting. Because black crows don't live in Serbia...

Galka - chough

Both yellow billed

And red billed

Galobela - Sheep with black (galo) head and white (bela) body
Galoš - black (gal) string plated into hair in Serbia

In the same dictionaries we see that "kalj, kal" is the equivalent of "galj, gal":

Kal - dirt, blackness 

Kaljav, Kalovit - muddy, black (kal)

Kaloka - person or sheep with black, dark (kal) rings around their eyes

Kalušast- person or sheep with black, dark (kal) rings around their eyes

Kaljav - dirty, black (kalj)

Kaljuga - muck, blackness (kalj)

"k" and "g" and "l" and "lj" are interchangeable sounds which depend on dialect and pronunciation abilities which gives us "kal", "kalj", "gal", "galj" all with the same meaning "black, dirty"...

Interestingly we find the same root (gal) with the same meaning several other languages:

In Croatian we find

Galka, Galica - chough 

In Bulgarian we find

Gal - pitch black, dirt

Galica - Black corvid, raven, jackdaw, chough

Galata - dirt, black 

In Czech we find

Gał - pitch (black substance)

In Ukrainian and Russian we find

Galka - jackdaw

In Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, Romani we find 

kala - black

In Nepali we find 

kalo - black

This is the root of the name of the Goddess Kali...

And in Gaelic we find 

"Cailleach" 

which has several very interesting meanings: 

Cailleach dhubh - Cormorant. Cormorant literally means the raven of the sea, the black bird of the sea. So Cailleach dhubh basically means "black black bird". I believe that dhubh was added later when the original meaning of the word Cailleach was forgotten. In Serbian cormorant is called Vranac, meaning black like a crow.

Cailleach - old hag winter, old woman (wrapped in black shawl), nun (in black habit). By the way this is how Romans depicted the "winter spirit":

So we have the word kal, kalj, gal, galj meaning black. 

Now, where does this word come from...

Another black bird from the crow family is rook which is in Serbian called "gačac". Here you can hear the sound of rooks. It sounds like "Ga, Ga, Ga". This is why this bird is in Serbian called "gačac", the bird that says "Ga".

One proposal is that the words "gal", "galka", "galica" used for black corvids are onomatopoeic and come from the sound all these corvids make: "ga!"... 

And then the word gal (black) would literally mean "like a bird that says ga" 🙂

This is a very very interesting word indeed...I will come back to it in few of my next posts...

Teeth

In most Slavic languages "zub" means tooth. Officially it comes from Proto-Slavic "*zǫbъ" from Proto-Balto-Slavic "*źámbas" from PIE "*ǵómbʰos"... 

Hmmm... 

Sumerian word for teeth is "zú"....

Sumerian language was attested from the late 4rd millennium BC, but is probably much older. It is officially not related to IE languages... 

Based on statistical analysis (???) as we have no written sources, Indoeuropean (IE) languages starting branching out from the hypothetical Protoindoeuropean (PIE) language some time between mid 5th and mid 4th millennium BC 

Officially, Slavic languages are much younger and branched out much later, some time after the early 2nd millennium BC...

How come then Slavic "zubi" (teeth) has the same root as Sumerian "zú" teeth? Another ancient root miraculously preserved in "young" Slavic languages?

Just like words for Mind, Writing, Grain, Life, Breath, Grain devouring insect, Sickle whose roots are the same in Slavic languages and Sumerian...

Mystery...

Kudurru

Kudurru was a type of stone document used as boundary stones and as records of land grants to vassals by the Kassites in ancient Babylonia between the 16th and 12th centuries BCE...

The kudurrus recorded the land granted by the king to his vassals as a record of his decision. The original kudurru would be stored in a temple while the person granted the land would be given a clay copy to use as a boundary stone to confirm legal ownership...

The Kassites controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC. They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of the city in 1595 BC, and established a dynasty based first in Babylon and later in Dur-Kurigalzu...

The Kassites were members of a small military aristocracy. The chariot and the horse, first came into use in Babylonia at this time...

The original homeland of the Kassites is not well-known, but appears to have been located in the Zagros Mountains, in what is now the Lorestan Province of Iran...

This is interesting: The Kassite language has not been classified...Officially "their language was not related to either the Indo-European language group, nor to Semitic or other Afro-Asiatic languages, and is most likely to have been a language isolate"...

Even more interesting: "However, the arrival of the Kassites has been connected to the contemporary migrations of Indo-European peoples (Chariots!!!)"...

Even even more interesting: "Several Kassite leaders and deities bore Indo-European names, and it is possible that they were dominated by an Indo-European elite (military aristocracy!!!) similar to the Mitanni, who ruled over the Hurro-Urartian-speaking Hurrians of Asia Minor..."

Why is this interesting? Kudurru, "the gift stone". Apparently "...a word probably of Elamite origin that means both 'boundary marker' but also 'eldest son'"...This is interesting as it is the eldest son who usually inherits the land in Indo-European culture...

KUDURRU specifies WHO the land was GIVEN AS GIFT

In Serbian (and other Slavic languages) we have these two words:

KO, KUJ (who)-from Proto-Slavic *kъto, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos
DAR (gift)-from Proto-Slavic *darъ, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃rom.

Was kudurru more like a Indoeuropean ko+dar=who+gift?

When was Kudurru first recorded as a word? During Kassites rule or before? Maybe this is just a coincidence...

Colossos

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek sun-god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, island of Rhodes, in 280 BC. The Colossus stood approximately 33 metres (108 feet) high. It collapsed during the earthquake of 226 BC, although parts of it were preserved...

Now the word Colossus comes from the Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossos) meaning "large statue, large idol"...Official etymology says: origin unknown, possibly Pre-Greek (perhaps Minoan)...I would like to propose alternative origin here...

In the 1960s three Mesolithic postholes were discovered near Stonhenge. These timber features were interpreted as remnants of "totem poles" and laboratory carbon dating showed that the postholes dated from 8800 BC...

Interestingly, these three massive wooden stakes, which once stood 14 feet high, were aligned to face the direction of the spring and autumn equinoxes...

Meaning that the people who erected them knew how to determine true east, and were most likely sun worshipers. And they probably used the same ancient method of determining true east used by the builders of many "oriented" structures which I described in my post "Boaz and Jachin"... 

Once you determine true east, all you need is another pole stuck into the ground to mark that point on the horizon...Which is why originally there were only two Stonehenge solar poles. Third one seems to have been added later...

It seems that in the Balkans people used threshing floors as solar observatories, and the central pole as the gnomon (Greek for "the one who knows"). The central pole was the one who knew and was able to tell us where sun was...

Which is why these central threshing floor poles acquired sacred status and were directly linked to the sun and grain cult. Rituals were performed at the pole and even sacrifices were offered to it. I talked about this in my post "Shield of Achilles" and "Bogovo gumno, god's threshing floor" 

I would propose, that the first totems, were poles, stakes probably related to solar cult. Later they were carved with faces and became idols. Like the Shigir Idol, the oldest known wooden sculpture in the world carved 11,500 years ago, which once stood 5.3 meters high...

Even later, these totems were made of stone. They last longer, and are more showoffy...First just plain standing stones. Like Cahersiveen standing stone, in Co. Kerry, Ireland. (Pic David Smyth)

Then carvings and eventually faces were added to these stone poles, stakes and we ended up with statues, idols. Like Urfa Man, 1.80 meters, c. 9,000 BC sandstone free standing idol made in Upper Mesopotamia, today's Turkey...

So if the original totems, idols, statues were large stakes, is it possible that the origin of the Greek "κολοσσός" (kolossos) could be Pre Greek word for stake? Interestingly Greeks also used κολοττός (kolottós). Now add t+s and pronounce them together. Keep repeating this...

How do we make a stake? We cut down a tree, we strip in bare of branches. 

Then we sharpen one end...

In Serbian "gol" means naked, bare, "golac" means that which is naked, bare and "kolac" (pronounced kolats) means stake...

I talked about this etymology in my post "Kolac-Golac"... 

Now if you combine "colossos" and "kolottos" you get "kolotsos"...

Is it possible that the unknown, Pre Greek root of these two words is Serbian word "kolac" (pronounced kolats), meaning stake, pole (and symbolically totem pole, idol)??? I don't know, but it is definitely possible...

In Slavic languages the word "balvan" means roundwood, beam, log, piece of timber, idol...