| sanomanchhe |
Posted
on 23-Jul-02 06:12 PM
Playing with words!
Everybody believes that Microsoft is juggernaut. Literally speaking juggernaut is 'An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path.' If its so, no hesitation to label Microsoft a juggernaut. But let's give it another look. Juggernaut has origin in the name of our deity JAGANNATH. People used to sacrifice their life under the wheel of large chariot of JAGANNATH in Indian state of Orissa. The British – ruling India at that time- saw the people crowding near the large wagon being pulled and coming under wheel being crushed mercilessly chanting JAGANNATH, JAGANNATH and coined the word JUGGERNAUT. So, Microsoft is nothing but JAGANNATH (JAGAT + NATH). Well done!
Yoke in human collar is Yoga. Yoke is a tool to enforce discipline in horses and ox and bind them. So is the Yoga (yes! off course to human being). Yoga and Iugum (in Latin meaning to combine) transcended from Yogah – from Sanskrit meaning union, joining. Then some philosophers devised Yoga for man and workers invented Yoke for animals.
Zen, an English word with its root again in Sanskrit, means nothing but one sect of Buddhism which asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion. DHYAN from Sanskrit has traveled a long distance from CHAN in China to become ZEN in Japan.
In Sanskrit PAD is used for foot. And the way traveled by PAD is PATHA in Sanskrit and PATH in English and no need to further elaborate that the words like Pedal and Pedestrian are only the manipulation of PAD. One does not have to visit dental clinic to find root of DENTAL in the word DANTA from Sanskrit meaning teeth. AGNI in Sanskrit changed to IGNITE in English via the word Ignis in Latin. HASTA to HATHA to HAND, DWAR to DOOR, SARPA to Serpent and MUSH to Mouse.
Let us do some counting. TRI from Tri-Bhuwan means THREE and TRI is used as prefix in English as well e.g. Trimonthly! Although there is much deviation in use of SASTHA and SAPTA in Sanskrit and HEXA and HEPTA in English for six and seven respectively, the route for eight can be traced very easily. OCTA is a prefix to signify eight in English and no need to tell what ASTA means in Sanskrit!
Something unaccounted!
All of us must be aware of a Nepali word DHOOS used when the point equals in play! Lo look at the word DUCE often used in lawn tennis. They did nothing but picked our word DHOOS and twisted their tongue to make it DUCE! More twisting of tongue can be observed in another word ANAKANTAR which is a Nepali word for a remote place seldom visited. The southern pole discovered in 18th century is far from any place in the earth and people had never been there! So, the place was named ANAKANTAR and later changed with time to become ANTARCTICA!
At the end: NAAM in Nepali is NAME in English, NAMAE in Japanese and does have similar pronunciation in many major languages around the world. Etymologists believe that languages have common origin!
|
| mother goose |
Posted
on 24-Jul-02 08:45 AM
Of course it is a well-known fact!
http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=442471 (or type "indo-germanic" in google search)
Some excerpts:
Language Changes:
Over time, languages evolve. This is due to slow changes in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar that naturally occur over long periods of time. The Old English word modor became the Middle English moder which eventually became the modern English mother. One language may split into two different languages when speakers are separated by physical or cultural barriers for extended periods. When two speakers have noticeable differences in speech but can still understand each other, they are said to be speaking different dialects. When they can no longer mutually understand one another, then they are speaking different languages.
Language Families:
Linguists divide the languages of the world, past and present, into various language families. English belongs to a family of languages called the Indo-European Language Family, which includes Greek, French, Russian, Hindi, German, Irish, and many other tongues of Europe and Asia. It is theorized that thousands of years ago all Indo-European languages had a common ancestor, a hypothetical protolanguage. There are many other families besides Indo-European, and there are attempts to prove relations between the different families.
Cognates:
One way that linguists prove that languages are related to one another is by using cognates. A cognate is a related word in another language. For example, the English word mother has cognates in several other Indo-European languages: Greek meter, Russian mate, German mutter, Sanskrit matri, and Irish mathair. These words all share a similar sound, and thousands of years ago they were likely all the same word in the same language.
Loanwords:
English has many words of foreign origin, which are called loanwords. A great deal of the English vocabulary is made up of French and Latin loanwords, which were added by the French-speaking Norman invaders who conquered England in the 11th century AD. Other languages with which English speakers come into contact add to the vocabulary as well.
|
