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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] QNH-BSM

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  • From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] QNH-BSM
  • Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 03:36:54 +0000

On 5/22/06, Peter Kirk wrote:

Well, the language could be Zyryan = Komi. But the name used by Liddell,
Scott and Jones is closer to "Syrian" and "Syriac", and most of the
other 47 hits on "Syrianian" make much more sense if related to Syria
and Semitic languages. I accept that "Sirianian" is sometimes used of
Zyryan/Komi, but the LSJ spelling is "Syrianian". But if pïš is in fact
the Zyryan/Komi word for "hemp" rather than a form of the Syriac word,
that is best explained as a contraction of KANNABIS, or else as a
coincidence. It seems hardly plausible that the Greeks put together
their word for "hemp" from a concatenation of the words in two different
languages of remote "barbarian" peoples.

The use in context is that these are examples of "Ugro-Finnish." These
are two branches of the currently so-called Finno-Ugrian family. Syriac is
not. If you look up "Finno-Ugrian" along with "cannabis" you will find more
hits in google, although none are probably as trustworthy as LSJ/
Perseus. The last line in the wikipedia article notes what is apparently
a vague sound correspondence between "hemp" and "cannabis" (h = c,
m = n, p = b). So perhaps the theory on these lines is, that cannabis/hemp
represents a word borrowed way back when into IE from Finno-Ugrian words
and having undergone many language borrowings across the IE and other
languages distorting its reconstruction. But as the LSJ terms are old (ie,
ancient/outdated and mostly used in reference to 19th century articles), I
am not sure how valid that supposition is.

Yitzhak Sapir
http://toldot.blogspot.com




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