Word equation (linguistics)

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A word equation is a series of words from different languages ​​that list similar words in these languages ​​with the same or similar meaning. The etymology studied (using the methods of historical linguistics ) whether the similarity to a common ancestor of the words or Lehnwortbildung back or whether there is a chance resemblance. If the words of a word equation have a common origin, they are also called (primary) relatives .

Examples

The following table summarizes word equations of Germanic languages .

language father mother daughter heart knee foot 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10
German father mother daughter heart knee foot one) two three four five six seven eight nine ten
Luxembourgish - - Thief Häerz Knee Fouss een (t) two dräi four fënnef six siwen aight néng zéng
Yiddish foter mother tokhter hard knee fus eyn (s) tsvey dray fir fin (e) f zeks zibn akht nayn tsen
Cimbrian vaatar muutar tòkhtar hèertze chnie vuus òan zbòa drai viar vüf sèks siban eight well zègan
Swiss German Dad Mothers daughter Harz Chnöi, Chnü Fuess ai (s) two, two push, three four füf, foif saxon sibe eight well tough (e)
Old High German fater muoter tohter herza kneo, kniu fuoz a (az) two drī fior fimf see sibun ahto niun zehan
Dutch Vader moeder wick hard knee voet één twee three four vijf zes zeven eight negen tien
Low German Vader Moder Daughter Hard knee Foot een twee dree veer fief sauce söven eight negen teihn
Old Saxon fadar mōdar dohtar herta knio fōt ēn twē thrīe fiuwar fīf see siƀun ahto nigun tehan
West Frisian faar moer wick hert - fet ien twa trije fjouwer fiif seis sân eight njogging tsien
Old Frisian feather murderer wick came knī fōt ān, ēn twā, twē thrē, thriā fiūwer fīf sex siugun eight a niugun tiān
English father mother daughter heart knee foot one two three four five six seven eight nine th
Scots fader moder, mither wick hert knee fit ane twa three fower five sax seiven aight nine th
Old English fæder mōdor dohtor heorte cnēo fōt on twā þrī fēower fīf sex seofon eahta niġon tīen
Swedish far, fader mor, moder yolk hjärta knä fot en (två) tre fyra fem sex sju åtta nio tio
Old Norse faðir móðir dóttir hiarta kné fótr an (tvá) þrír fiórir fimm sex siau átta níu tíu
Gothic fadar mōþar daúhtar haírtō kniu fetus áins twái þreis fidwōr fimf saíhs sibun ahtáu niun taíhun
Urgermanic * faðēr * mōðēr * duχtēr * χertān * knewan * fōt- * ainaz * twai * þrīz * feðwōr (iz) * fimfe * seχs * seƀun * aχtōu * newun * teχunt

The following table summarizes word equations in Indo-European languages .

language father mother daughter heart knee foot
Hittite - - duttarii̯ata / i- ker (Dat. kardi) enough ~ ganu- pāt- ~ pat-
Ancient Greek patḗr meter thygátēr kē̃r / kardía góny poús (Gen. podós)
Latin pāter māter futír ( Oscan ) cor (Gen. cordis) genū pēs (Gen. pedis)
Old Irish athir máthir duxtir ( Gallic ) cride glún ed 'step, interval'
Tocharian A / B pācar / pācer mācar / mācer ckācar / tkācer kri 'will' / käryāñ kanweṃ / kenīne pe / paiyye
Gothic fadar mōþer daúhtar haírtō kniu fetus
Lithuanian - mótė 'wife' duktė͂ širdìs - pãdas 'sole' / pėdà 'footprint'
Albanian - motër 'sister' - - gju -
Old Armenian hayr (Gen. hawr) mayr (Gen. mawr) industrial sirt cun-r otn
Avestisch ptā māta dugǝdar- zǝrǝd- žnūm pad-
Old Indian pitā́ (stem pitár-) mātā́ (stem mātár-) duhitā́ (stem duhitár-) hṛdaya jā́nu pā́t (acc.pā́dam)
Indo-European * ph₂tḗr * méh₂tēr * dʰugh₂tḗr * ḱḗr (Gen. ḱrd-ós) * ǵenu- * pṓds (Gen. pḗds)

The sound laws of a language family can be determined from these word equations and the common starting form of the relatives in the original language of this language family can be deduced (see the reconstructed Indo-European approaches in the last line of the table).

Word equations are - in addition to morphological comparisons  - an indispensable aid when investigating the genetic relationships of a group of languages. A language group for which such equations cannot be systematically established cannot be regarded as a genetic unit .

Word equations for “stable terms” - kinship terms, body parts - which are usually not borrowed from one language to another , but rather belong to the common primordial stock of a language family, are particularly important . According to Aharon Dolgopolsky (1986) the 23 most "stable" terms in this sense are:

me / me - two / couple - you / you - who / what - tongue / language - name - eye - heart - tooth - no / not - fingernail / toenail / claw - louse - tear - water - dead - hand - night - Blood - horn - full - sun - ear - salt

This list, arranged according to “stability” (decreasing from top to bottom), is based on the study of 140 languages ​​from different language families in Europe and Asia. It is also often used to investigate distant genetic relationships (see Macro Family ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aharon Dolgopolsky: A probabilistic hypothesis concerning the oldest relationships among the language families in northern Eurasia . In: Vitaly Shevoroshkin, Thomas Markey (Eds.): Typology, relationship, and time. Karoma, Ann Arbor (Michigan) 1986, pp. 27-50.