#indo Hellenic

[a-wick-with-no-candle]

I’ve just been thinking a lot about cycles recently. As a devotee of Hekate and as a member of the Covenant of Hekate, I try my best every day to follow the 5 Virtues.

But today it just struck me how similar the 5 Virtues are to the 5 Mindfulness Trainings of Tibetan Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

I was first introduced to Thay when I was 16 and in the deepest depression of my life. His teachings on Zen Buddhism helped me so much, and I feel, led me to Hekate in my spiritual journey now in my 30’s.

The stropholos and the Wheel of Dharma just resonate to me in a complimentary way. And the Ancient Greeks did have a similar stance on reincarnation to Buddhism at least through a few mystery cults. I know that they are not perfectly parallel or syncretic, but I think the boddhisatva Avalokiteshvara and goddess Hekate are a good balance to each other.

We do know that there was cross-cultural blending through the representation of Greco-Buddhist art primarily in Gandhara (parts of modern day Pakistan and Afghanistan).

I was wondering if there are any others here who also follow an eclectic spiritual path?

[yvanspijk]

Just because two words look alike and have a similar meaning doesn't mean they're etymologically related. There has to be a common ancestor. For example, much looks like Spanish mucho, yet they stem from *mekilaz and multum respectively. Here are twelve pairs of false cognates.

[loki-was-framed]

Interesting. I would say that animism is the natural religious impulse, and that what we call paganism is much closer to that than modern monotheism. It seems to me that the Abrahamic religions, while descended from polytheism, seek to deny or destroy that natural religious impulse, for reasons that have more to do with the rise of hierarchical state structures than any philosophical or "theological" superiority.

“Paganism is the natural religious impulse manifesting naturally in human beings.”

- Thomas Rowsell

[gemsofgreece]

Mycenaean Greek

(and examples of lexical evolution to Modern Greek)

Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language (16th to 12th centuries BC). The language is preserved in inscriptions of Linear B, a script first attested on Crete before the 14th century BC. The tablets long remained undeciphered and many languages were suggested for them until Michael Ventris, building on the extensive work of Alice Kober, deciphered the script in 1952. This turn of events has made Greek officially the oldest recorded living language in the world.

What does this mean though? Does it mean that a Modern Greek could speak to a resurrected Mycenaean Greek and have an effortless chat? Well obviously not. But we are talking about the linear evolution of one single language (with its dialects) throughout time that was associated with one ethnic group, without any parallel development of other related languages falling in the same lingual branch whatsoever.

Are we sure it was Greek though? At this point, yes, we are. Linguists have found in Mycenaean Greek a lot of the expected drops and innovations that individualised the Hellenic branch from the mother Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). In other words, it falls right between PIE and Archaic Greek and resembles what Proto-Greek is speculated to have been like. According to Wikipedia, Mycenaean Greek had already undergone all the sound changes particular to the Greek language.

Why was it so hard to decipher Linear B and understand it was just very early Greek? Can an average Greek speaker now read Linear B? No. An average Greek speaker cannot read Linear B unless they take into account and train themselves on certain rules and peculiarities that even took specialized linguists ages to realise and get used to. Here's the catch: Linear B was a script inspired by the Minoan Linear A, both of which were found in the Minoan speaking Crete. (Minoan Linear A inscriptions have yet to be deciphered and we know nothing about them.) The Mycenaeans (or was it initially the Minoans???) made only minimal modifications to produce the Linear B script and used it exclusively for practical purposes, namely for accounting lists and inventories. Linear B however was an ideographic and syllabic script that stemmed from a script that originally was not designed to render the Mycenaean Greek language, and thus it could not do it perfectly. In other words, the script itself does not render the Greek words accurately which is what made it extremely hard even for the linguists to decipher these inscriptions. Due to its limited use for utility and not for prose, poetry or any other form of expression, the Mycenaean Greeks likely did not feel compelled to modify the script heavily into some more appropriate, accurate form to cover the language's needs.

Examples of the script's limitations:

I won't mention them all but just to give you an idea that will help you then read the words more easily:

In the syllabic script Linear B, all syllable symbols starting with a consonant obligatorily have a vowel following - they are all open sylllables without exception. Linear B can NOT render two consonants in a row which is a huge handicap because Greek absolutely has consonants occuring in a row. So, in many cases below, you will see that the vowel in the script is actually fake, it did not exist in the actual language, and I might use a strikethrough to help you out with this.

For the same reason, when there are consonants together, at least one of them is often casually skipped in Linear B!

There were no separate symbols for ρ (r) and λ (l). As a result, all r and l sounds are rendered with the r symbol.

Exactly because many Greek words end in σ, ς (sigma), ν (ni), ρ (rho) but in Linear B consonants must absolutely be followed by a vowel, a lot of time the last letter of the words is skipped in the script!

Voiced, voiceless and aspirate consonants all use the same symbols, for example we will see that ka, ha, gha, ga all are written as "ka". Pa, va, fa (pha), all are written as "pa". Te, the are written as "te".

There are numerous other limitations but also elements featured that were later dropped from the Greek language, i.e the semivowels, j, w, the digamma, the labialized velar consonants [ɡʷ, kʷ, kʷʰ], written ⟨q⟩, which are sometimes successfully represented with Linear B. However, that's too advanced for this post. I only gave some very basic, easy guidelines to help you imagine in your mind what the word probably sounded like and how it relates to later stages of Greek, and modern as is the case here. That's why I am also using simpler examples and more preserved vocabulary and no words which include a lot of these early elements which were later dropped or whose decoding is still unclear.

Mycenaean Linear B to Modern Greek vocabulary examples:

a-ke-ro = άγγελος (ágelos, angel. Notice how the ke symbol is representing ge, ro representing lo and the missing ending letter. So keep this in mind and make the needed modifications in your mind with the following examples. Also, angel actually means "messenger", "announcer". In the Christian context, it means "messenger from God", like angels are believed to be. So, that's why it exists in Mycenaean Greek and not because Greeks invented Christianity 15 centuries before Jesus was born XD )

a-ki-ri-ja = άγρια (ághria, wild, plural neuter. Note the strikethrough for the nonexistent vowel)

a-ko-ro = αγρός (aghrós, field)

a-ko-so-ne = άξονες (áksones, axes)

a-na-mo-to = ανάρμοστοι (anármostoi, inappropriate, plural masculine. Note the skipped consonants in the script)

a-ne-mo = ανέμων (anémon, of the winds)

a-ne-ta = άνετα (áneta, comfortable, plural neuter, an 100% here, well done Linear B!)

a-po-te-ra = αμφότερες (amphóteres, or amphóterae in more Archaic Greek, both, plural feminine)

a-pu = από (apó, from)

a-re-ka-sa-da-ra = Αλεξάνδρα (Alexandra)

de-de-me-no = (δε)δεμένο (ðeðeméno, tied, neuter, the double de- is considered too old school, archaic now)

do-ra = δώρα (ðóra, gifts)

do-ro-me-u = δρομεύς (ðroméfs, dromeús in more Archaic Greek, runner)

do-se = δώσει (ðósei, to give, third person singular, subjunctive)

e-ko-me-no = ερχόμενος (erkhómenos, coming, masculine)

e-mi-to = έμμισθο (émmistho, salaried, neuter)

e-ne-ka = ένεκα (éneka, an 100%, thanks to, thanks for)

e-re-mo = έρημος (érimos, could be pronounced éremos in more Archaic Greek, desert)

e-re-u-te-ro-se = ελευθέρωσε (elefthérose, liberated/freed, simple past, third person)

e-ru-to-ro = ερυθρός (erythrós, red, masculine)

e-u-ko-me-no = ευχόμενος (efkhómenos or eukhómenos in more Archaic Greek, wishing, masculine)

qe = και (ke, and)

qi-si-pe-e = ξίφη (xíphi, swords)

i-je-re-ja = ιέρεια (iéreia, priestess)

ka-ko-de-ta = χαλκόδετα (και όχι κακόδετα!) (khalkóðeta, bound with bronze, plural neuter)

ke-ka-u-me-no = κεκαυμένος (kekafménos, kekauménos in more Archaic Greek, burnt, masculine)

ke-ra-me-u = κεραμεύς (keraméfs, kerameús in more Archaic Greek, potter)

ki-to = χιτών (khitón, chiton)

ko-ri-to = Κόρινθος (kórinthos, Corinth)

ku-mi-no = κύμινο (kýmino, cumin)

ku-pa-ri-se-ja = κυπαρίσσια (kyparíssia, cypress trees)

ku-ru-so = χρυσός (khrysós, gold)

ma-te-re = μητέρα (mitéra, mother)

me-ri = μέλι (méli, honey)

me-ta = μετά (metá, after / post)

o-ri-ko = ολίγος (olíghos, little amount, masculine)

pa-ma-ko = φάρμακο (phármako, medicine)

pa-te = πάντες (pántes, everybody / all)

pe-di-ra = πέδιλα (péðila, sandals)

pe-ko-to = πλεκτό (plektó, woven, neuter)

pe-ru-si-ni-wo = περυσινό / περσινό (perysinó or persinó, last year's, neuter)

po-me-ne = ποιμένες (poiménes, shepherds)

po-ro-te-u = Πρωτεύς (Proteus)

po-ru-po-de = πολύποδες (polýpoðes, multi-legged, plural)

ra-pte = ράπτες (ráptes, tailors)

ri-me-ne = λιμένες (liménes, ports)

ta-ta-mo = σταθμός (stathmós, station)

te-o-do-ra = Θεοδώρα (Theodora)

to-ra-ke = θώρακες (thórakes, breastplates)

u-po = υπό (ypó, under)

wi-de = είδε (íðe, saw, simple past, third person singular)

By the way it's killing me that I expected the first words to be decoded in an early civilisation would be stuff like sun, moon, animal, water but we got shit like inappropriate, salaried and station XD

Sources:

gistor.gr

Greek language | Wikipedia

Mycenaean Greek | Wikipedia

Linear B | Wikipedia

John Angelopoulos

Image source

[mapsontheweb]

Indoeuropean languages in Europe

Historical Roots: The Indo-European language family is believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppe around 4000-2500 BCE. From there, groups of speakers migrated to various parts of Europe, contributing to the linguistic diversity of the continent.

by hunmapper

Language Diversification: Indo-European languages in Europe have evolved into numerous branches and sub-branches. Some of the major branches include:

Romance Languages: Descendants of Latin, including French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.

Germanic Languages: Including English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and others. Slavic Languages: Such as Russian, Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian. Celtic Languages: Including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh. Hellenic Languages: Mainly Greek. Baltic Languages: Such as Lithuanian and Latvian. Indo-Iranian Languages: Including Hindi, Bengali, and Persian. Cultural Significance: Indo-European languages have played a pivotal role in shaping European culture, history, and literature. Greek and Latin, for instance, have had a profound influence on science, philosophy, and the development of the Roman Empire.

Language Revival: Some Indo-European languages in Europe, such as Irish and Welsh, have experienced language revival efforts in recent decades. These efforts aim to preserve and revitalize languages that were declining in usage.

Language Contact: Due to centuries of contact and migration, many Indo-European languages have borrowed words and phrases from each other. This phenomenon, known as linguistic borrowing, has enriched the vocabulary and expressions of these languages.

[theanic-devotion]

Reminder

You can worship A Great Goddess/Mother Earth sort of entity without it being based off an ancient or prehistorical religion. There doesn't need to be a paleolithic indo-european goddess worshipping culture for you to believe in a goddess figure.

There is no need to make up history or speculate about the so-called "Venus Figurines" in order to validate your religion/spirituality.

I have recently realized I believe in a Mother Goddess (Though I believe she is all genders and none, She just feels mothery to me) and have been working toward venerating her. It isn't Hellenic/Greek or Kemetic/Egyptian or Norse or Celtic or anything earlier.

Love,

A pagan and a history enthusiast

[hubristicwizard]

c'mon guys i just got this new OCULAR SYMBIOTE that allows me to absorb full pages of information at NEAR-INSTANT SPEEDS. i need an excuse to use it

Ask ME any Wizard Question in my Arcane Inbox and I will uncover for you an Answer from my Vast Stores of Literature

[tissitpoispaita]

Which language family does your native language belong to?

I like the idea of this poll by @akozuheiwa, but Indo-European skews the results way too much with its massive online prevalence and number of speakers. So, I'm wondering if the poll could be improved by breaking IE into its extant branches. Probably not much, since English speakers will just make this a Germanic sweep, but it could be a step in the right direction.

Out of all the non-IE families, I added Uralic as a separate option because it was by far the most often listed family in the previous poll's tags*, and "other, list in tags" so far has more answers than all the biggest non-IE families combined. Plus, the majority of its speakers are Europeans and thus more likely to be on English-speaking Tumblr.

*(Many people also listed Finno-Ugric, which is a Uralic group)

IE branches containing a single extant language (Albanian, Armenian, and Hellenic/Greek) were combined to make room for two more poll options out of the four biggest families besides IE: Afro-Asiatic & Niger-Congo and Austronesian & Sino-Tibetan. Please tell me if these groupings don't make sense.

People with more than one native language, please choose "other" if multiple categories apply.

As always, please reblog for a bigger sample size.

[gwendolynlerman]

Most commonly spoken language in each country

I had to separate the legend from the map because it would not have been legible otherwise. I am aware that the color distinctions are not always very clear, but there are only so many colors in the palette.

The legend is arranged in alphabetical order and languages are grouped by family (bullet points), with branches represented by numbers and followed by the color palette languages within them are colored in, as follows:

Afroasiatic

Chadic (Hausa) — ocher

Cushitic (Oromo and Somali) — light yellow-green

Semitic (from Arabic to Tigrinya) — yellow

Albanian — olive green

Armenian — mauve

Atlantic-Congo

Benue-Congo (from Chewa to Zulu) — blue-green

Senegambian (Fula and Wolof) — faded blue-green

Volta-Congo (Ewe and Mooré) — bright blue-green

Austroasiatic (Khmer and Vietnamese) — dark blue-purple

Austronesian

Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (from Fijian to Wallisian) — dark brown

Malayo-Polynesian (Palauan) — bright brown

Western Malayo-Polynesian (from Malagasy to Tagalog) — light brown

Eastern Sudanic (Dinka) — foral white

Hellenic (Greek) — black

Indo-European

Germanic (from Danish to Swedish) — light blue (creoles in medium/dark blue)

English-based creoles (from Antiguan and Barbudan to Vincentian Creole)

Indo-Aryan (from Bengali to Sinhala) — purple

Iranian (Persian) — gray

Romance (from Catalan to Spanish) — red (creoles in dark red)

French-based creoles (from Haitian Creole to Seychellois Creole)

Portuguese-based creoles (from Cape Verdean Creole to Papiamento)

Slavic — light green (from Bulgarian to Ukrainian)

Inuit (Greenlandic) — white

Japonic (Japanese) — blanched almond

Kartvelian (Georgian) — faded blue

Koreanic (Korean) — yellow-orange

Kra-Dai (Lao and Thai) — dark orange

Mande (from Bambara to Mandinka) — magenta/violet

Mongolic (Mongolian) — red-brown

Sino-Tibetan (Burmese, Chinese*, and Dzongkha) — pink

Turkic (from Azerbaijani to Uzbek) — dark green

Uralic

Balto-Finnic (Estonian and Finnish) — light orange

Ugric (Hungarian) — salmon

* Chinese refers to Cantonese and Mandarin. Hindi and Urdu are grouped under Hindustani, and Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian are grouped under Serbo-Croatian.

[tecontos]

Minha bucetinha ficou uma delicia

By; Hellen

Me chamo Hellen, tenho 24 anos e sou de Sorocaba-SP.

Tenho o costume de ir em festivais tântricos e, apesar de serem lugares ótimos para pesquisar mais sobre a nossa sexualidade, nunca tinha rolado nada em plena sessão conjunta. Mas teve um verão em que resolvi experimentar um festival mais privado que uns amigos estavam organizando. Estava namorando, na época e convidei meu namorado para ir junto porque achei que a gente precisava de apimentar um pouco a vida amorosa. Ele topou e a gente escolheu ficar em camarata (já não tinha mais quarto privado na altura em que a gente comprou).

O ambiente lá era mega livre, todo o mundo curtindo à vontade, um mood sensual mas sem putaria. Logo no dia em que eu cheguei, enquanto Rodrigo (meu namorado) fazia uma sesta, uma garota se aproximou de mim na piscina (ainda só tinha nós duas lá) e falou que eu não precisava estar usando bikini. Nesses lugares, sempre é assim, cada um usa se quiser, mas você nunca quer ser o primeiro a se despir (sóbrio, pelo menos). Ela falou isso e tirou a parte de cima, eu sorri, falei;

- ��é, tem razão” e tirei também.

Ela falou; - “nem me apresentei, sou a Gabriela, prazer.” e me abraçou forte, dando para sentir seus peitos médios durinhos contra os meus.

Na hora fiquei meio molhada, mas tentei não denunciar demais. Na piscina, a gente depois jogou à bola com mais galera, eu subi nos ombros dela, já sem bikini, esfregando a bucetinha no pescoço dela e nos divertimos, mas não rolou nada mais.

Mais tarde, na hora de jantar, tinha música rolando, eu estava dançando com o Rodrigo e a Gabi chegou perto, eu a apresentei, a gente ficou conversando e foi super legal. Nos demos os três super bem, dançamos até que todo o mundo começou a tirar as camisetas (garotas também) e eu e Gabi já estávamos nos esfregando muito na frente de todo o mundo. Quase apertei a bunda dela com tesão, mas apenas passei a mão como parte da dança. Rodrigo estava observando e participando às vezes, mas mais olhando divertido.

Quando fomos para a camarata, eu e Rodrigo fomos para a mesma cama e ele socou minha buceta com os seus dedos até gozar. Aí, eu, tentando ser discreta, chupei seu pau que foi muito rápido a encher minha boquinha toda de leite quente.

No dia seguinte teve várias aulas e dinâmicas com todo o mundo e eu e Gabi íamos sempre nos cruzando e a proximidade ia aumentando.

Nesse fim de tarde teve uma aula de dança tântrica que pouca gente foi. É meio difícil explicar como é uma aula dessas, mas a professora vai explicando pressões diferentes e como confiar nos colegas e todo o mundo vai dançando, às vezes em grupo, às vezes só e outras a pares. Como estava muito calor, eu e Gabi tínhamos apenas um shorts de algodão de desporto curto e uma parte de cima só de tapar os peitos.

A gente dançou muito, trocou muita energia boa, transpirou, se arrasou. A sala era de janelas grandes, então a gente estava só com luz natural que estava indo embora, pois já era quase noite. Aí eu nem lembro bem, apenas de flashes.

Lembro da gente curtindo de pé a música mais lenta, sentindo a respiração dela no pescoço, lembro da gente meio deitadas no chão, ela escorregando pela minha barriga e quase dando uma mordida leve na minha buceta, lembro de roçar meu peito no dela meio que em círculos… Sei que quando a música parou e todo o mundo acalmou, eu tinha a minha perna molhada até ao joelho de tanto gozo.

Aí eu olhei para a janela, deitada no chão e vi Rodrigo, olhando para a gente, só de sunga com um ar mega apaixonado e tesudo. A gente saiu da aula juntas, beijei ele, não falei nada e fui para a camarata com Gabi. Rodrigo veio atrás.

Como estava todo o mundo a jantar, a camarata estava vazia. Deitei ela na primeira cama que vi e comecei a beijar a sua buceta mesmo por cima dos shorts. (Eu nunca tinha transado com uma garota (só beijos na noite) e eu e o Rodrigo nunca tínhamos falado sobre nada de ficar com outras pessoas.) Estava com tanta fome de comer aquela garota, que arranquei o short e caí de boca com muita vontade. Estava amando sentir o meu rosto completamente molhado, nossa, que tesão. Aí, Rodrigo, vendo minha bunda empinada começou a se roçar, tirou minha calcinha e me lambeu, como se quisesse tirar o excesso de gozo que já tinha escorrendo. Aí tirou seu pau e enfiou todo em mim de uma vez.

Foi o melhor gozo da minha vida, chupando aquela garota linda que estava gozando também e sendo socada com força por aquele pau de uma vez.

Estava sendo tudo como uma alucinação, uma dança sem fim. Gabi se sentou na minha cara, eu na dela, esfregamos as bucetas como se toda a energia fosse pouca, Rodrigo comeu minha buceta, minha boca, meu cu (Gabi e Rodrigo não estavam muito afim de se comer entre si), nem sei quantas vezes gozei. Teve até horas em que acho que teve gente entrando no quarto, mas nenhum de nós ligou para isso…

No fim, todos gozados, a gente se tomou um duche rápido e voltou para o jantar. Mas não posso negar que a minha buceta ficou inchada o resto da noite. E, felizmente, Gabi e Rodrigo passaram a mão por ela várias vezes para me acalmar ao longo do serão…

Enviado ao Te Contos por Hellen

[o-craven-canto]

Words borrowed from other languages in English

Very incomplete list, based mostly on The Languages of the World (3rd ed.), Kenneth Katzner, 2002 + a heavy use of Wiktionary. some notes:

Many of these words have passed through multiple languages on their way to English (e.g. Persian -> Arabic -> Spanish -> French -> English); in that case I usually list them under the first language that used them with the same meaning as English.

I generally don't include words whose ancestors already existed in Middle English, unless their origin was exotic enough to be interesting.

The vast majority of borrowings are terms very specific to their culture of origin; I generally only include those that are either well known among English-speakers, or of general use outside that culture. As always, this is largely subjective.

INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY (West and South Eurasia)

Hellenic

Greek: angel, chronometer, democracy, encyclopedia, geography, graphic, hieroglyphic, homogeneous, hydraulic, kudos, meter, microphone, microscope, monarchy, philosophy, phobia, photography, telephone, telescope, thermometer, and way too many other scientific or technical terms to count

Germanic

Afrikaans: aardvark, apartheid, fynbos, rooibos, springbok, trek, veld, wildebeest

Danish: Lego, simper

Dutch: brandy, bumpkin, coleslaw, cookie, deck, dock, dollar, freight, furlough, hodgepodge, landscape, maelstrom, noodle, Santa Claus, waffle, walrus, yacht

German: aurochs, bildungsroman, blitzkrieg, cobalt, dachsund, eigenvector, ersatz, gestalt, glockenspiel, hamburger, hinterland, kindergarten, kohlrabi, lager, poodle, quark, sauerkraut, wanderlust, yodel, zeitgeist

Icelandic: eider, geyser

Norwegian: auk, fjord, krill, lemming, narwhal, slalom, troll

Swedish: lek, mink, ombudsman, rutabaga, smorgasbord, tungsten

Yiddish: bupkis, chutzpah, kvetch, putz, schlemiel, schmaltz, schmooze, schtick, spiel, tchotchke

Slavic

Czech: robot

Russian: fedora, glasnost, intelligentsia, kefir, mammoth, pogrom, samizdat, steppe, sputnik, troika, tsar, vodka

Serbo-Croat: cravat, paprika

Celtic [many of these words are shared between the two languages]

Irish: bog, galore, gaol, geas, glen, orrery, shamrock, slob, whiskey

Scottish Gaelic: bard, bunny, cairn, clan, loch, ptarmigan, ?scone, slogan

Italic-Romance

†Latin: way too many, but ignoring the ones that were already naturalized in Middle English: a priori, arcane, algae, alumni, artificial, calculus, cancer, carnivore, cavity, circa, confide, dire, federal, flammable, homicide, interregnum, larva, lemur, magnanimity, manuscript, millipede, nebula, nimbus, nocturnal, octave, optimal, postmortem, senile, supernova, urban, verbatim, and countless medical or legal terms

French: the bulk of French (or rather Norman) borrowings occurred before Middle English, but to stick to my rules: aubergine, bourgeois, buttress, camouflage, capitalism, caramel, chassis, chauvinism, cheque, collage, elite, embassy, ennui, espionage, etiquette, facade, fondue, gouache, guillotine, infantry, lingerie, mauve, mayonnaise, mollusk, Renaissance, reservoir, sabotage, souvenir, turquoise...

Italian: allegro, aria, balcony, bandit, bravo, calamari, casino, cello, chiaroscuro, crescendo, contraband, contrapposto, fresco, gazette, ghetto, gusto, inferno, lagoon, lava, mafia, malaria, pants, quarantine, tempo, umbrella, vendetta, volcano

Portuguese: baroque, brocade, cachalot, cobra, creole, flamingo, petunia, pimento, zebra

Spanish: abalone, armadillo, bolas, bonanza, canyon, cargo, chupacabra, cigar, cilantro, embargo, gaucho, guerrilla, junta, manta, mesa, mosquito, mustang, patio, pueblo, rodeo, siesta, tornado, vanilla

Iranian

Persian: bazaar, caravan, checkmate, chess, crimson, dervish, divan, jackal, jasmine, khaki, kiosk, lemon, lilac, musk, orange, pajama, paradise, satrap, shawl, taffeta

Indo-Aryan

†Sanskrit: brahmin, Buddha, chakra, guru, karma, mantra, opal, swastika, yoga

Bengali: dinghy, jute, nabob

Hindi: bandana, bungalow, cheetah, chintz, chutney, coolie, cot, dungaree, juggernaut, lacquer, loot, rajah, pundit, shampoo, tom-tom, thug, veranda

Marathi: mongoose

Romani: hanky-panky, pal, shiv

Sinhalese: anaconda, beriberi, serendipity, tourmaline

DRAVIDIAN FAMILY (Southern India)

Kannada: bamboo

Malayalam: atoll, calico, copra, jackfruit, mahogany, mango, pagoda, teak

Tamil: curry, mulligatawny, pariah

Telugu: bandicoot

URALIC FAMILY (Northern Eurasia)

Finnic

Finnish: sauna

Saami: tundra

Samoyedic

Nenets: parka

Ugric

Hungarian: biro, coach, goulash, hussar, puszta, tokay

VASCONIC FAMILY (Northern Pirenees)

Basque: chaparral, chimichurri, silhouette

TURKIC FAMILY (Central and Northern Eurasia)

†Old Turkic: cossack, yurt

Tatar: ?stramonium

Turkish: baklava, balaclava, bergamot, caftan, caviar, harem, janissary, kebab, kismet, minaret, pastrami, sherbet, tulip, yoghurt

Yakut: taiga

MONGOLIC FAMILY (Mongolia and surrounding areas)

Mongol: horde, khan, ?valerian

SINO-TIBETAN FAMILY (China and Southeast Asia)

Tibeto-Burman

Burmese: ?marzipan

Tibetan: lama, panda, tulpa, yak, yeti

Sinitic [Chinese languages closely related, not always clear from which a borrowing comes]

Hokkien: ?ketchup, sampan, tea

Mandarin: chi, dazibao, gung-ho, kaolin, oolong, shaolin, shanghai, tao, yin-yang

Min Nan: nunchaku

Yue (Cantonese): chop suey, dim sum, kowtow, kumquat, lychee, shar-pei, ?typhoon, wok

TUNGUSIC FAMILY (Eastern Siberia)

Evenki: pika, shaman

KOREANIC FAMILY (Koreas)

Korean: bulgogi, chaebol, hantavirus, kimchi, mukbang, taekwondo

JAPONIC FAMILY (Japan)

Japanese: banzai, bonsai, dojo, emoji, geisha, ginkgo, hikikomori, honcho, ikebana, kamikaze, karaoke, koi, kudzu, manga, origami, pachinko, rickshaw, sake, samurai, sensei, soy, sushi, tofu, tsunami, tycoon, zen

KRA-DAI FAMILY (mainland Southeast Asia)

Thai: bong, pad thai

AUSTROASIATIC FAMILY (mainland Southeast Asia)

Vietnamese: pho, saola, Vietcong

AUSTRONESIAN FAMILY (maritime Southeast Asia and Oceania)

Western Malayan

Javanese: ?junk [ship]

Malay: amok, camphor, cockatoo, compound [building], cootie, durian, kapok, orangutan, paddy, pangolin, rattan, sarong

Barito

Malagasy: raffia

Phlippinic

Cebuano: dugong

Ilocano: yo-yo

Tagalog: boondocks

Oceanic

Hawai'ian: aloha, hula, luau, poi, wiki

Maori: kauri, kiwi, mana, weta

Marshallese: bikini

Tahitian: pareo, tattoo

Tongan: taboo

TRANS-NEW GUINEAN FAMILY (New Guinea)

Fore: kuru

PAMA-NYUNGAN FAMILY (Australia)

Dharug: boomerang, corroboree, dingo, koala, wallaby, wobbegong, wombat, woomera

Guugu Yimithirr: kangaroo, quoll

Nyungar: dunnart, gidgee, quokka

Pitjantjatjara: Uluru

Wathaurong: bunyip

Wiradjuri: kookaburra

Yagara: dilly bag

AFRO-ASIATIC FAMILY (North Africa and Near East)

Coptic: adobe

Berber

Tachelhit: argan

Semitic

†Punic: Africa

Arabic: albatross, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alfalfa, algebra, alkali, amber, arsenal, artichoke, assassin, candy, coffee, cotton, elixir, gazebo, gazelle, ghoul, giraffe, hashish, harem, magazine, mattress, monsoon, sofa, sugar, sultan, syrup, tabby, tariff, zenith, zero

Hebrew: amen, behemoth, cabal, cherub, hallelujah, kibbutz, kosher, manna, myrrh, rabbi, sabbath, Satan, seraph, shibboleth

NIGER-CONGO FAMILY (Subsaharan Africa)

unknown: cola, gorilla, tango

Senegambian

Wolof: banana, fonio, ?hip, ?jigger [parasite], karite, ?jive, yam

Gur-Adamawa

Ngbandi: Ebola

Kwa

Ewe: voodoo

Volta-Niger

Igbo: okra

Yoruba: gelee [headgear], mambo, oba, orisha

Cross River

Ibibio: calypso

Bantu

Lingala: basenji

Kikongo: ?chimpanzee, ?macaque, ?zombie

Kimbundu: ?banjo, Candomblé, gumbo, macumba, tanga

Swahili: askari, Jenga, kwanzaa, safari

Xhosa: Ubuntu

Zulu: impala, mamba, vuvuzela

KHOE-KWADI FAMILY (Southwest Africa)

Khoekhoe (Hottentot): gnu, kudu, quagga

ESKIMO-ALEUT FAMILY (Arctic America)

Greenlandic Inuit: igloo, kayak

Inuktikut: nunatak

ALGIC FAMILY (Eastern Canada and northeast USA)

†Proto-Algonquin: moccasin, opossum, skunk

Cree: muskeg, pemmican

Mikmaq: caribou, toboggan

Montagnais: husky

Narragansett: ?moose, ?powwow, sachem

Ojibwe: chipmunk, totem, wendigo, woodchuck

Powhatan: persimmon, raccoon

SALISHAN FAMILY (Pacific coast at the USA-Canada border)

Chehalis: chinook

Halkomelem: sasquatch

Lushootseed: geoduck

IROQUOIAN FAMILY (Eastern North America)

Cherokee: sequoia

SIOUAN FAMILY (Central USA)

Lakota: teepee

MUSKOGEAN FAMILY (Southeast USA)

Choctaw: bayou

UTO-AZTECAN FAMILY (Southwest USA and north Mexico)

Nahuatl: atlatl, avocado, chili, cocoa, coyote, chocolate, guacamole, hoazin, mesquite, ocelot, quetzal, tamale, tegu, tomato

O'odham (Pima): jojoba

Shoshone: chuckwalla

Yaqui: ?saguaro

MAYAN FAMILY (Southern Mexico and Guatemala)

Yucatec Maya: cenote, Chicxulub

ARAWAKAN FAMILY (Caribbeans and South America)

†Taino: barbecue, cannibal, canoe, cassava, cay, guava, hammock, hurricane, iguana, maize, manatee, mangrove, maroon, potato, savanna, tobacco

Arawak: papaya

CARIBAN FAMILY (Caribbean coast of South America)

unknown: curare

Galibi Carib: caiman, chigger, pawpaw, peccary, yucca

QUECHUAN FAMILY (Andes)

Quechua: ?Andes, caoutchouc, coca, condor, guano, jerky, llama, mate, poncho, puma, quinine, vicuna

AYMARAN FAMILY (Andes)

Aymara: alpaca, chinchilla

TUPIAN FAMILY (Brazil)

[borrowings are often shared between these two languages]

†Old Tupi: ananas, arowana, Cayenne [pepper], jaguar, manioc, piranha, tapioca

Guarani: cougar, maracuja, Paraguay, petunia, toucan

CREOLE LANGUAGES (worldwide, mixed origin)

English-derived

Chinese Pidgin English: chopstick, long time no see, pidgin, taipan

Jamaican Creole: dreadlocks, reggae

Chinook-derived

Chinook Jargon: potlatch

EDIT 08-01-24: added lots more examples, especially African, Asian, and North American languages. Still not done. EDIT 17-01-24: finished adding examples, more or less. EDIT: 18-02-24: apparently not (cheetah). EDIT: 20-05-24: nope (mosquito); 30-06-24: jerky, mukbang, cello, glockenspiel, hodgepodge; 06-06-25: marzipan, lagoon, contraband, artichoke EDIT 02-11-24: finally expanded the French and Latin points. Also, added kudos, camphor, moose, and the Thai and Vietnamese sections.

[yvanspijk]

The words galaxy and latte are etymologically related. Galaxy stems from Ancient Greek Galaxíās (Milky Way), from gála (milk), which has the same ancestor as Italian latte (milk). The Milky Way was named after its milky glowing band in the night sky. Click the image for a further explanation.

[paganimagevault]

Mummified heads from Xiaohe cemetery 2000 BCE

"Readers of Language Log will certainly be aware of Tocharian, but when I began my international research project on the Tarim Basin mummies in 1991, very few people — only a tiny handful of esoteric researchers — had ever heard of the Tocharians and their language since they went extinct more than a millennium ago, until fragmentary manuscripts were discovered in the early part of the 20th century and were deciphered by Sieg und Siegling (I always love the sound of their surnames linked together by "und"), two German Indologists / philologists — Emil Sieg (1866-1951) and Wilhelm Siegling (1880-1946), in the first decade of the last century.

It wasn't long after the decipherment of Tocharian by Sieg und Siegling that historical linguists began to realize the monumental importance of this hitherto completely unknown language. First of all, it is the second oldest — after Hittite — Indo-European language to branch off from PIE. Second, even though its historical seat was on the back doorstep of Sinitic and it loaned many significant words (e.g., "honey", "lion") to the latter, it is a centum (Hellenic, Celtic, Italic and Germanic) language lying to the east of the satem (Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic) IE languages. (PROVISO: some sophists will undoubtedly argue that the centum-satem split in Indo-European is meaningless; it has happened before on Language Log and elsewhere, but I think it does matter for the history of IE languages and the people who spoke them.) Third, Tocharian has grammatical features that resemble Italic, Celtic, and Germanic (i.e., northwest European languages) more than they do the other branches of IE. (STIPULATION: certain casuists will surely argue that such differences are meaningless, but I believe they are crucial for comprehending the nature of the spread of IE in time and space.) Etc.

Because their physical, textual, and cultural remains were indisputably found in the Tarim Basin, the Tocharians naturally became a primary focus of my investigations in Eastern Central Asia during the more than two decades from the nineties through 2012."

-Victor Mair, Language Log: The sound and sense of Tocharian. University of Pennsylvania.

[gemsofgreece]

So I was looking up words for wine in various languages, noticed Ancient and Modern Greek have different names, looked up where the modern one came from, and immediately got flashbacks to your νερό/ύδωρ post haha. Has Greek done that with any other words or is it just the drinks? (Also the ancients sure loved their diluted wine, is that still practiced?)

[For context, Anon refers to the Aquatic etymologies post.]

And yeah, for some weird reason the etymological thing that happened with water also happened with wine! For those who don't know, in short Ancient and Modern Greek have different words for water and the explanation for this is that the ancients would say a certain phrase to mean "fresh water" and as time passed when Greeks would ask for water they would say "fresh" for short, instead of just saying...uhhh... you know, "water". So eventually the ancient word for "fresh" became the word meaning water and the actual water gradually fell out of use (except for its derivatives).

As if this was not funny enough once, it happened again with wine, like Anon points out. The ancient Greek word for wine is οἶνος, a very ancient word with direct PIE roots (From Proto-Hellenic *wóinos compare Mycenaean Greek wo-no, from Proto-Indo-European *wéyh₁ō; related to English wine, Latin vīnum etc). In modern pronunciation, it is ínos.

However by the Byzantine period the word for wine had changed from οίνος to κρασί (krasí). So what happened there? Was this a foreign loanword? Was it a Medieval Greek neologism? Well, nope! Krasi etymologically comes from the Ancient Greek noun κρᾶσις (krásis) which means mixture, referring to the beloved habit of Ancient Greeks to dilute their wine with water. In fact, the ancients themselves would often say "οἶνος κεκραμένος" (ínos kekraménos) which means "mixed wine".

So somehow it seems the Byzantine Greeks were saying "the mixture" referring to wine so much that it overshadowed the actual word for wine at some point and it became the standard word for wine! This makes me assume that in the Byzantine Empire they kept diluting their wine for the most part, perhaps because getting drunk must have not been viewed very positively in a medieval Christian society.

What's certain is that Greeks after the Fall of Constantinople and during their existence in the Ottoman Empire and then the modern state of Greece absolutely have NOT been diluting their wine. Which means that calling our modern wine "krasí" is technically wrong. The funny thing is that the pure non-diluted wine we drink today is also called άκρατος οίνος (ákratos ínos) which means precisely "non-mixed wine" and it is literally the exact opposite of its "synonym" κρασί (krasí)! So these two are simultaneously synonyms and antonyms... welcome to Greek.

I should say however that οίνος, the ancient word for wine, is not obsolete by any means. Οίνος is absolutely a very much existing, used word in modern Greek, it's just not as regularly used as κρασί. For example, in your everyday speech you will probably say krasí, but in written form or in a more formal context you will likely say ínos instead. I don´t know where you found the words but it just gave you the most common, standard everyday one. Comparatively, the ancient word for water ύδωρ is way, way less used than the word οίνος.

Also, a lot of wine derivatives used in modern Greek come from οίνος. Some examples:

οινεμπόριο (inembório) = wine trade οινοπαραγωγή (inoparaghoyí) = wine production οινοποιείο (inopiío) = winery οινοπωλείο (inopolío) = wine shop οινοποσία (inoposía) = wine drinking οιναποθήκη (inapothíki) = wine store room οινώδης (inóðis) = wine-like, relating to wine

Unlike in the water's case though, some derivatives in modern Greek also come from κρασί. Some examples:

κρασοπότηρο (krasopótiro) = wine glass κρασοκανάτα (krasokanáta) = jug for wine, more often used sarcastically for a drunkard κρασοκατάνυξη (krasokatányxi) = "wine devoutness", sarcastically the implied as excessive consumption of wine in a group κρασάτο (krasáto) = used for a dish with wine as an important ingredient

Did you notice that the derivatives coming from krasí seem less formal and often more caustic than the ones from inos? That's not random at all. It shows you right there which word has more formal and which has more informal connotations.

Back to your question about whether Greeks still dilute their wine, the reason Ancient Greeks did that is because they did not have good enough ways to prevent their wine from turning to vinegar so in order to preserve the wine they used very mature grapes that had more carbohydrates and gave a higher alcoholic degree to their wine. Their wine was stronger than ours nowadays. So they diluted it with water to not get easily drunk and then speak nonsense in the sympósia XD

As to whether there are other such cases of funny etymology in Greek, you know what, I am POSITIVE there is a lot but I can´t think of something on the top of my head. Well, one I have written about before is the case of the mouse. There were mice on the ships which the ancients called ποντικός μῦς (pontikós mys) meaning something like "of the sea / coastal mouse" and then again after time the first word overshadowed the second so now we call the mouse "pontikós", therefore we literally call the mouse "coastal" instead of, you know... mouse.

[hmantegazzi]

Have you noticed that Columbus is a tremendous case of nominative determinism, or a huge coincidence?

For starters, his personal name, Christopher, is an Hellenic name, Christo-phoros, meaning 'Christ-bearer', and it became widespread among Christians for the legend of the eponymous saint, who carried an unknown and uncannily heavy child across a river, that happened to be THE Jesus and then said to the man that the weight he had loaded was the entire world and his creator.

What did this other Christopher? Crossed another body of water, carrying with himself the Christian religion and all the good and bad (and super very bad) things of the so-called 'Old World' to the Americas.

But ok, Christopher was a common name back then, so it's not so hard for it to be a coincidence.

Now, Columbus?

Even if the surname strictly refers to a dove or pigeon (and you still could get some extra religious imaginery from that), the weird part is how the noun gets reused and suffixed when making reference to him. Especially in Spanish, where the surname doesn't have the b, and is instead just 'Colón'.

What did Colón do in the Americas? He colon-ised them, creating colon-ies, which only got to be called 'Colombia' or 'Columbia' because 'Colonia' was already a taken toponym for the southern German city.

I'm going to be honest with you: it took too much time to child me to get that the concept of colony wasn't derived from the name of the guy who started the biggest colonisation event in the history of humanity, and instead from the Proto-Indo-European '*kʷel-', to move around, till or dwell, and that it's cognate with 'pole' and 'inquiline'. It just made too much sense, and the alternative almost none of it, except for the fact that 'colonia' in Latin had the current meaning as it has now for at least a millennium before Colón was even born!