L I B R A R Y Uc 



THE HUMOUR OF ESTRANGED INDO-GER^X T*^ K-^/ 

 COGNATES. \^'/.^.r ' v'- 



I'.v Rev. W. A. NoRTOx, S.SAL 



A pedagogue friend of mine asked me to make him a list of 

 Aryan cognates for the sake of his pupils, and this is the result 

 of work on Prof. Herman Hirt's IndogermaniscJicr Ablaut, of 

 which my paper is largely a digest, although I must also make 

 my acknowledgments to the late lamented Dr. Skeat. 



Aly method has been to produce under each Aryan root a 

 sentence to illustrate various forms which it takes. The sentence 

 is often nonsensical enough, if not alarming (for crude 'physical 

 ideas are naturally the oldest, and best illustrate the common life 

 of our primitive forefathers ) so 1 beg my readers will forget the 

 sentiments and fix their minds only on the words which express 

 them. These consist, as far as possible, of various forms of the 

 same Aryan roots, and the faint suggestion of Alice in Wonder- 

 land, due to the frequent strangeness of the conjunction is only an 

 index to the amazing distance which the word's meaning wdl 

 travel by association, etc. I have preserved English throughout, 

 using only words that somehow or other appear in that language, 

 because a foreign word means so little to an Englishman, but, if 

 adapted to his own language, helps at once to an enlargement oi 

 his vocabulary, and a Imking-up with the original language. 



In some cases the cognate words are not far apart either in 

 force or meaning: take slack and lax (L)"^; name, naam, nama 

 fSk), nomen (L). ovo/xa (Gk); us, oiis, wis (G), nos (L") 

 asmaii, iias (Sk), i)/j,a^ (Gk). 



For a wide difference in names and things, which yet are 

 cognate, take honey and kancanam (Sk for gold) ; again, teach 

 and (G) zcigcn^ the change of former and latter consonants both 

 illustrating Grimm's Law. 



The case is similar with several obsolete or nearly obsolete 

 English words: e.g., thrum is the end of a thread in weaving, i.c , 

 its term or terminus (L). Ejiie means uncle in old English 

 (old G '-= Oheim), but is connected with Gk. rt/x?; (honour^ 

 rrjpew (to guard). Necm (D for to take) is the L cmo (to 

 buy). In primitive barter you took the other man's or woman's 

 goods for your own. 



A famous case commented on l^y Max Miiller for the light 

 it throws on the primitive history of European Botany is Birc^. 

 ( Sk Bhurjas) cognate with E fra.rinus (ash) the tree which took 

 its place in other lands. 



A last example is pejor (L comparative of bad) and f^y 

 (doom.ed), which reminds us that our forefathers also thought 

 that if we give a dog a bad name we might as well hang him. 



* The followinp- alibreviations are employed throughout tliis paper ■.^- 

 L = Latin, Gk = Greek, G = German, D =^ Dutcli, Sk = San.skrit. 



