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Türkic and Romance Languages

 

Valentyn Stetsyuk
Research of Prehistoric Ethnogenetical Processes in Eastern Europe

Book 2
Lviv 2003
Traces of Linguistic Contacts in Türkic and Indo-European Vocabularies

Links

http://www.geocities.com/valentyn_ua/TurGrLatEng.doc
http://www.geocities.com/valentyn_ua/AO22b.doc
http://www.geocities.com/valentyn_ua/TurkOst.doc
http://www.geocities.com/valentyn_ua/Turkic.html

For a detail analysis of Türkic in Spanish, go to Alans in Pyrenees

Foreword

The reconstructed Herodotus World Map ca 450 BC shows the world as it was known to the Greeks at the time. A major portion of the tribes listed by Herodotus north-east of the Greek world constitute tribes that either have direct Türkic names (Budini = People, Gelones = Snake, Iurcae = Nomads, Arimaspi = Half-Eyed, Sauromatae = Saddlebagged, Agathyrsi = Tree People, Scythians = As-Guzes), or the tribes whose Türkic affiliation can be reasonably reconstructed (Neuri, Issedones, Saspirians, ) or at least suspected (Androphags, Melanchlaeni, Argippaei). It is quite possible that somewhat derogatory connotations of some names (like Budini, Iurcae, Arimaspi,  Agathyrsi) indicate exoethnonyms of Türkic origin, and the peoples themselves may have been non-Türks, and conceivably Finno-Ugrian, Germanic or Baltic tribes. In addition, the Tyrrheni in the Apennine peninsula are verifiably documented as one of the major contributors to the Latin language, and also as the carriers of the language with a considerable Türkic substrate. In the word list assembled by V. Stetsyuk in his book, a number of the words have a Greek equivalent, and they may be reasonably presumed as being Türkic loanwords via the Greek intermediaries. The Greeks, a confederation of maritime tribes, by the Herodotus time had about a millennia of the coastal colonization, and they had inevitably absorbed voluminous word loans from the aboriginal populations of the coasts and the adjacent lands. These borrowings were profound and documented in the religious area, where the majority of the deities are from known non-Greek extraction.

Evolved in the Apennine peninsula, the initial Latin root of the Romance group of languages evolved from the Greek and Tyrrhenian (Etruscan) environment absorbed in the proto-Latin dialects of the Apennines. The limited list of the direct Türkic borrowings, without their matching counterparts in the Greek and Etruscan languages, provides an evidence of the direct contacts between the incipient Latin carriers and the neighboring Türkic, or, using the terminology of the times, Scythian tribes. In later times, when the Rome power extended way beyond the Apennines, these Türkic borrowings could have found a way to be absorbed into the mainstream Latin from the Scythian mercenaries documented as serving in the Roman army, but the initial borrowings must have come from the tribes absorbed into the Roman local population, and from the trading contacts with the carriers of the Türkic languages of the time.

The legacy of the Latin lasted for another millennia. As a universal lingua franca, the Latin was the language of state administration, jurisprudence, culture, science, literature and religion in most of the countries of the western and central Europe, with some vestiges extending into the New Times. Thus, Latin was instrumental in spreading its borrowings throughout not only the western, but also the eastern Europe. And the Latin disseminated its Türkisms deep and wide, dispersing them into Germanic, Celtic, Scandinavian, Baltic and other languages, where they can be discerned by their etymological roots ascending to the Latin language (like the borrowing of the word "use" in English).

Herodotus World Map ca 450 BC

A very important aspect is the direction of the borrowing. The first criteria is usually the etymology, when a word has a clear meaning in one family and as clearly does not have a meaning in another family, like the Agathyrs, Budini and Iurks in the example above. Another direct evidence is the tracing in the literary sources. With the absence of the direct evidence, the accepted criteria is the distribution of the word in the compared source families of languages. For example, if the word "casa" = "house, home" and its derivatives are found in the majority of the Indo-European family of languages (say, in 50 out of approx. 70, or approx. 75%), and only in a few non-IE languages (say, in 2 out of 20, or approx. 10%), the preponderance of the evidence justifies assumption of the direction of borrowing from the Indo-European to the non-IE languages, and not in the opposite direction. Thus, each found borrowing has to be assessed for the direction of the borrowing. Naturally, this assessment frequently shatters the settled conceptions, which in the remote past boldly assumed that the direction of the borrowing was from the language family of the researcher to the other families. Another accepted indicator of the direction is the semantical direction from a general to a more specific, or from a specific concept to a general concept, like the generic Türkic "tree", agach, becoming a name of a tree species, acacia, apparently by the same way as the generic "maize" became a type of corn in the borrower languages. An opposite example is the conversion of the specific name into a category name, like the proper name Caesar becoming Kaiser in German and Tsar in Slavic.

Not all Türkic loan words were documented in the Latin written sources, and not all of the documented words were analyzed for a possible source, so the following list is only a part of a prospective complete listing.  However, even this partial list can be a first stepping stone for a statistical re-evaluation of the etymological sources of the Latin language.

The unfortunate double/triple translation in the list below (for example, Latin => German, German => Russian, Russian => English, or Cyrillicized Tatar => Russian, Russian => English) may lose some semantical precision, but still would preserve the meaningful essence of the words.

The spelling of the Cyrillicized  Türkic words in the Russian sphere of domination is transcribed from the Greek-based quasi-Cyrillic to English, performed by V. Stetsyuk in his original work. The accuracy of all these transformations would suggest a possibility of alternate spellings for the most of the cited words.

Abbreviations

 a.o. - and others
Arm - Armenian
Balk - Balkar
Chuv - Chuvashian
CTür - common for all Türkic
Dt - Dutch
Eng - English
etc - and other derivatives
Gag. - Gagauz
Gil - Gilan
Got - Gothic
Gr - Greek
IE - Indoeuropean
Karach - Karachay
Kaz - Kazakh
Kirg - Kirghiz
Kr-Blk - Karachay-Blkarian
Lat - Latin
Lit - Lithuanian
Norw - Norwegian
OE - Old English
OG- Old Germanic
OI - Old Indian
OIcl - Old Icelandic
OT - Old Türkic
Pers - Persian
Sl - Old-Slavic
Sw- Swedish
Tat - Tartarian
Tur - Turkish
Turkm- Turkmenian
Uzb - Uzbek
Yak - Yakut

Links

Examples of the most convincing Türkic - Latin lexical parallels coming from the time preceding the Greek and Roman "classical" periods can be shown below.

English Lat Türkic Phonetic Türkic Semantic Other IE

1

acacia acacia agač CTür tree Gr akakia - acacia
2 alga
seaweed
alga yălkha Chuv ooze  
3 announce (v) publikare puple Chuv speak  
4 army
detachment
order
row
ordo orda CTür
Turkm, Kaz
urta Chuv
ordu Tur a.o.
army (This word was popularized by Chingizkhanids, including the moniker Golden Horde for the Chingizid Kipchak Khanaate, and it took a negative connotation in all Chingizid derivatives, including Persia, India, China and Russia. But who would think that the Latin "Iuris quod Ordo" has only one Latin word, "quod"  - Tranlator's Note)

This is a member of 218-201 BC Roman Ordo horde, Latin ordo equester, on a Roman coin, wearing Scythian - Saka - Hunnic - Bulgarian - Türkic - Tatar - modern Bashkorts, Tatars, Kazakhs, etc conic bashlyk bonnet hat, riding a horse with a Türkic hallmark knotted tail, with horsehair bunchuk (bürçäk, bürchäk) plume flying off his shoulder, like he just stepped off the pages of a Kazakh or Bashkort history book. It is highly unlikely that the ancient Romans borrowed the term “horde” = “army” from the Middle Age Mongol language, or borrowed 鬼戎的 gui-ro-de from the ancient Chinese. The legend reads “LADINOD”, town name Larinum in the ablative, in Oscan “d” sounded like an “r”. The Roman cavalry Ordo–horde initially consisted exclusively of patricians, and Roman patricians were Etruscans. Bronze quincunx from Larinum mint. No tamga is shown.

5 ash tree farnus věrene Chuv maple  
6 axe barda balta CTür axe (Remember “halberd”? “Balta” is quite a popular word, Google search for “balta” returns 500,000 entries. “CTür” stands for all Türkic, i.e. Sakha Yakuts and Uigurs share this word with the ancient Latins - Translator's Note)
7 beat (v)
split (v)
scapula çapa Tur
çap Chuv
čabu Tat  a.o.
mattok
beat
mow
cut
Gr skhptos, koptw, Lit kapoti a.o.
8 bed cama khăma Chuv board  
9 bend (v)   bükmek Tur
bögü Tat
bügerge  Kr-Blk a.o.
bend Got biugan, OE bugan, OI bhujati, Sl b'gati
10 box arca arča Chuv chest  
11 bread round torta tărta Chuv twine (v), nest (v)  
12 bring (v)
take (v)
fero be:r CTür
bermek Turkm
vermek Tur
berirge Kr-Blk a.o.
bring Gr jerw, Sl bürati, etc.
13 broom scopula Chuv šăpăr broom  
14 care cura khural Chuv protection  
15 cave
pit
cavea govak Turkm
kovuk Tur
xăvăl Chuv a.o
cave
hollow
hole
Gr kaiata, OI kevata a.o.
16 chew (v)   gevelemek Tur
kavšamoq Uzb
küüšenirge Kr-Blk a.o.
chew OE ceowan, Germ kauen, Sl žvati, Pers j’ävidän, Gil j’avêstên a.o.
17 crooked Cocles (moniker) kuklek crooked  
18 cut (v) castrare kes CTür
kesmek Turkm, Tur
keserge Kr-Blk
kesu Kaz  a.o.
cut Gr keazw , Sl kosa, kositi, Lit gabenti, a.o.
19 downpour, gush imber jagmyr Turkm
çumăr Chuv
jangyr Tat
jomg'yr Uzb
yag'mur Tur 
rain  
20 fast, quick cito xytă Chuv
qaty Kr-Blk
fast, quick
fast, rapid
 
21 fish species sarda, sardina çărtan Chuv pike (fish)  
22 folk
herd
crowd
vulgus
pulkkă Chuv herd
flight
flock
Germ Volk, Eng folk
Bulgar is the name one of the Türkic tribes
23 four quattuar tăvattă Chuv four  
24 friend amicuc ami Chuv friend
brother
 
25 habitual
customary
vulgaris pulkkă Chuv herd
flight
flock
(Evident derivative of "vulgus" -  - Translator's Note)
26 hill teba (Sabinian) CTür
tüpe Chuv
tepe Tur
töbe Kaz, etc
moutain, top (A single word does not mean anything, but it may point in a right direction - Sabines were allied with Etruscans at times of their need, pointing to kinship links. They were not "Aborigines", and are mentioned in connection with horses and militancy. They were relatively numerous, with 20,000 army they may have numbered 100,000 people, likely to include tons of dependent "Aborigines". Their known lexicon numbers between 50 and 100 words, not necessarily of their own)
27 house casa kasă street  
28 glorify (v)
sacrifice (v)
mactare, macto magtamak Turkm
muxta Chuv
maxtarg'a Kr-Blk
maqtamoq Uzb
maxtan Yak  a.o.
glorify
praise
thank
etc
 
29 juice
sap
sapa săpăkh Chuv leak (v)  
30 laurel laurus lăbăr Chuv thistle  
31 law, justice ius, iuris jărăs Chuv
yasa Tur
džoruq Kr-Blk a.o.
sraight
law, regulations
law
(This word was popularized by Yassa of Chingizkhan, which  continued to serve as a supreme law in all Chingizid derivatives, including Persia, India, China and Russia, long after the Chingizids were gone  - Tranlator's Note)
32 louse pudis bit  CTür
pyjta Chuv
bit/pit all others
louse  
33 mare caballus   mare Sl kobyla
34 parsley species Valeriana pultăran Chuv parsley See V. Stetsyuk's note below
35 pirate cursarius xarsăr Chuv
og'ursuz Kr-Blk
hîrsîz Tur a.o.
bold, courageous
wicked, vicious
thief
 
36 plant toxic cicuta kiken toxic plant  
37 priest abbas
abbot
apăs Chuv priest
38 pus stercus çirkef  Tur
čürük Gag
čirirge Kr-Blk a.o.
dirt
pus
rot (v)
Sl styv, Norw stor a.o.
39 right dexter dik/dek CTür
dikan Turkm
dik Tur
tikěs Chuv
tekis Uzb  a.o.
right, straight Gr dexios, Sl desn a.o.
40 rumour fàbula pavra Chuv chatter (v), talk (v)  
41 saliva saliva CTür
sěleke Chuv
selki Turkm
silegej Tat, etc
saliva  
42 shake sollicitare CTür
sille Chuv
selkildemek Turkm
silkmek Tur
shake (-demek, mek - Türkic affixes  - Tranlator's Note)
43 shine
light
fulgeo balkir Tur
balku Tat a.o.
shine Gr jlegw, Lit blykšti, Sl blikati, blesk etc.
44 soup ius, iuris jaška Chuv
juškăň Chuv
soup
slime
 
45 strong valeo uly Turkm, Kaz
ulu Tur, Gag
oly Kr-Blk
strong
great
Got waldan, Sl vlast, etc.
(Remember all those banal Ulubeks ans Ulugbeks, including the famous Middle Age  astronomer, Khan Ulugbek - Tranlator's Note)
46 stump, trunk codex kütük Tur, Gag stump, trunk (Etymology Dictionary: "L. codex, earlier caudex "book, book of laws," lit. "tree trunk," hence, wooden tablet for writing". Not a clue where the Latins took it from - Translator's Note)
47 swamp lama lăm Chuv moisture  
48 take (v)
seize (v)
habeo gapmak Turkm
xapYak
kapmak Tur
kabu Tat a.o
catch
seize
take
Got giban, Sl gabati, Lit gabenti, a.o.
49 throat faux buaz Gag
buvaz Kirg
bog'az Tur, Kaz, Kr-Blk a.o.
throat  
50 tor (Eng "stony top") torus tără Chuv top  
51 turn (v) forare bur  CTür
burmak Turkm, Tur
boru Tat
buramoq Uzb a.o.
turn OE borian, Gr jurw
52 turn (v) volvo ejlenderu Tat
ajlantirmoq Uzb
ajlanyu Kr-Blk
turn
rotation
Gr eilew, Sl val- etc
53 use usus usă Chuv use (Etymology Dictionary: "Old L. oeti "use, employ, exercise, perform," of unknown origin." Not a clue where the Latins took it from - Translator's Note)
54 weave (v)
spin (v)
texere doqa CTür
dokumak Tur
dokamak Turkm
toqu Kaz  a.o.
weave Gr tukos, Sl tkati, Arm t’ek’em a.o.
55 wormwood artemisia armuti Chuv wormwood Germ Wermut “wormwood”
           

Notes:

Chuv pultăran “a kind of parsley” - Germ Baldrian “valerian”. Perhaps, Latin name of the plant Valeriana, that is similar to parsley, is changed accordingly to Lat valere “be strong”, and the first name had some other form. German word is more like the Tur baldiran “a species of parsley” and the other Türkic articulations of the name of this plant (in Balkar, Tatarian and Altaian). Therefore, it is not clear which of the languages, German or Latin, adopted the Türkic word first.

Chuv tără “top” - Lat torus, Eng tor “stony top”.

 

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Indo-European, Dravidian, and Rigveda
Türkic and European Genetic distance
Türkic in English
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Alans in Pyrenees
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Alan Dateline
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