The Sound of Serpents and Serpent-Slayers in Indo-European and Northwest Semitic
(2021) Proto-Indo-European Reconstruction: Problems, Possibilities and New Perspectives (Cambridge, October 2021)- Abstract
- This paper is centered around using poetic-mythological vocabulary from Northwest Semitic languages as a key to reconstruction of IE phraseology. Mythological material from the NWS area – especially Ugaritic – can sometimes be shown to represent Indo-European borrowings into NWS poetic language; by studying these cases, knowledge may be gleaned about the loan-giver.
The famous phrase *egwhent ogwhim (“he slew the serpent”, or its laryngealistic
equivalent, *h1egwhent h3egwhim) has a reconstructible analogue in Proto-NWS (*maḫaṣ́a naḥaša – based on Hebrew and Ugaritic material), suggesting an early loan from IE into NWS or Central Semitic. In an earlier publication, I reconstructed this Semitic phrase with an emphatic... (More) - This paper is centered around using poetic-mythological vocabulary from Northwest Semitic languages as a key to reconstruction of IE phraseology. Mythological material from the NWS area – especially Ugaritic – can sometimes be shown to represent Indo-European borrowings into NWS poetic language; by studying these cases, knowledge may be gleaned about the loan-giver.
The famous phrase *egwhent ogwhim (“he slew the serpent”, or its laryngealistic
equivalent, *h1egwhent h3egwhim) has a reconstructible analogue in Proto-NWS (*maḫaṣ́a naḥaša – based on Hebrew and Ugaritic material), suggesting an early loan from IE into NWS or Central Semitic. In an earlier publication, I reconstructed this Semitic phrase with an emphatic sibilant/affricate in the first word: *maḫaṣa naḥaša (arguing that the sequence nasal-guttural-sibilant in both words represents an attempt to create a sort of counterpoint – using different sounds – of the assonance of the two *gwh-s in the IE phrase from which it was calqued). Deeper study of the phonology of the Semitic phrase suggests, however, that the first word was originally not *maḫaṣa but *maḫaṣ́a(the similar roots *mḫṣ́ and *mḥṣ, both meaning something like “strike”, having been conflated). This reconstruction, based on inner-Semitic poetic data, and its use of the highly marked phoneme *ṣ́– which phonetically was probably an ejective lateral fricative with affrication, [tɬʼ] – can indirectly provide clues to
the phonetics of the IE phrase by which it was inspired: specifically, of the repeated *gwh phonemes (a repetition for which the borrowers tried to create a sort of analogue using the repeated phoneme-series nasal-guttural-sibilant/affricate). The reconstruction thus illustrates poetic calquing through phono-semantic matching (as defined by Ghilʿad Zuckermann).
This comparison supports the interpretation of *gwh as a breathy-voiced, highly marked and complex phoneme (as opposed to suggestions questioning the breathy phonation), as I will argue that the choice of the complex (and unstable) Semitic sound *ṣ́ – with a special airstream mechanism as well as added affrication – represented a conscious way of imitating the dual (and poetically effective) occurrences of *gwh in the PIE phrase. If one adopts the reconstruction with a laryngeal, *h3egwhim, the effect becomes even greater, as *h3 was probably (?) itself articulated as a labialized uvular fricative, reinforcing
the assonance with *gwh, and the occurrence of this laryngeal would mesh well with the dual gutturals (ḫ/ḥ) of the calqued Semitic phrase.
The presentation thus focuses on the interplay between phonetics, etymological
poetics, inter-phyletic loans and phono-semantic calquing, illustrating how the study of “cross-border” poetic interaction can illustrate the phonetic realization of early poetic phraseology. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b6ff656e-24a1-4500-95aa-bdfee2a96938
- author
- Wikander, Ola LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Indo-European, Hebrew, Hebrew Bible, Ugaritic, HIttite, Sanskrit, Mythology, Phonology, Loans, inter-religious relations
- conference name
- Proto-Indo-European Reconstruction: Problems, Possibilities and New Perspectives (Cambridge, October 2021)
- conference location
- Cambridge, United Kingdom
- conference dates
- 2021-10-01 - 2021-10-02
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b6ff656e-24a1-4500-95aa-bdfee2a96938
- alternative location
- https://youtu.be/GTrdp44jdVw
- date added to LUP
- 2022-01-31 22:28:27
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:25:52
@misc{b6ff656e-24a1-4500-95aa-bdfee2a96938,
abstract = {{This paper is centered around using poetic-mythological vocabulary from Northwest Semitic languages as a key to reconstruction of IE phraseology. Mythological material from the NWS area – especially Ugaritic – can sometimes be shown to represent Indo-European borrowings into NWS poetic language; by studying these cases, knowledge may be gleaned about the loan-giver.<br/>The famous phrase *egwhent ogwhim (“he slew the serpent”, or its laryngealistic<br/>equivalent, *h1egwhent h3egwhim) has a reconstructible analogue in Proto-NWS (*maḫaṣ́a naḥaša – based on Hebrew and Ugaritic material), suggesting an early loan from IE into NWS or Central Semitic. In an earlier publication, I reconstructed this Semitic phrase with an emphatic sibilant/affricate in the first word: *maḫaṣa naḥaša (arguing that the sequence nasal-guttural-sibilant in both words represents an attempt to create a sort of counterpoint – using different sounds – of the assonance of the two *gwh-s in the IE phrase from which it was calqued). Deeper study of the phonology of the Semitic phrase suggests, however, that the first word was originally not *maḫaṣa but *maḫaṣ́a(the similar roots *mḫṣ́ and *mḥṣ, both meaning something like “strike”, having been conflated). This reconstruction, based on inner-Semitic poetic data, and its use of the highly marked phoneme *ṣ́– which phonetically was probably an ejective lateral fricative with affrication, [tɬʼ] – can indirectly provide clues to<br/>the phonetics of the IE phrase by which it was inspired: specifically, of the repeated *gwh phonemes (a repetition for which the borrowers tried to create a sort of analogue using the repeated phoneme-series nasal-guttural-sibilant/affricate). The reconstruction thus illustrates poetic calquing through phono-semantic matching (as defined by Ghilʿad Zuckermann).<br/>This comparison supports the interpretation of *gwh as a breathy-voiced, highly marked and complex phoneme (as opposed to suggestions questioning the breathy phonation), as I will argue that the choice of the complex (and unstable) Semitic sound *ṣ́ – with a special airstream mechanism as well as added affrication – represented a conscious way of imitating the dual (and poetically effective) occurrences of *gwh in the PIE phrase. If one adopts the reconstruction with a laryngeal, *h3egwhim, the effect becomes even greater, as *h3 was probably (?) itself articulated as a labialized uvular fricative, reinforcing<br/>the assonance with *gwh, and the occurrence of this laryngeal would mesh well with the dual gutturals (ḫ/ḥ) of the calqued Semitic phrase.<br/>The presentation thus focuses on the interplay between phonetics, etymological<br/>poetics, inter-phyletic loans and phono-semantic calquing, illustrating how the study of “cross-border” poetic interaction can illustrate the phonetic realization of early poetic phraseology.}},
author = {{Wikander, Ola}},
keywords = {{Indo-European; Hebrew; Hebrew Bible; Ugaritic; HIttite; Sanskrit; Mythology; Phonology; Loans; inter-religious relations}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{The Sound of Serpents and Serpent-Slayers in Indo-European and Northwest Semitic}},
url = {{https://youtu.be/GTrdp44jdVw}},
year = {{2021}},
}