Word Family - Earth

August theme: Earth and Water 🌎🌊

Introduction

Semtic *ʾartɬʼ-: "earth" and Proto-Indo-European *h₁erTeH: "earth". I connect these for several reasons (beyond the obvious). First, there are several indicators that *h₁ was pronounced as a glottal stop, including a number of other words that are apparent correspondences between PIE *h₁ and Semitic *ʾ. Second, the PIE word doesn't have a completely regular sound correspondence—the *T corresponds to a Baltic *dw -> Lithuanian dv, Germanic , and Hellenic *d' (ɟ) -> Classical Greek ζ. These seem like reasonable attempts to fit a borrowed *tɬʼ into each phonology.

Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃-: "to plow" is (almost certainly) not related, but ends up getting mixed up with *h₁erTeH in a few cases, so I'm treating them both here.

Teaser

earth, aardvark, arable

Full Text

  • Proto-Afro-Asiatic *ʔaritɬʼ-
    • Tamazight
      • Tashelhit ṛṛgg earth, soil
    • Chadic
      • West Chadic *Hritɬ’-
        • Pa'a riŝa earth
      • East Chadic *ʔirtɬ’-
        • Bidiyo 'iraadya valley
    • Semitic *ʾartɬʼ-
      • East Semitic
        • Akkadian 𒆠 erṣetu earth
      • Central Semitic
        • Arabic أَرْض ʾarḍ land, earth, country, ground
          • Maltese art earth
          • Swahili ardhi land, earth
          • Turkish arz earth
          • Arabic أَرْضِيَّة ʾarḍiyya floor
        • Northwest Semitic
          • Aramaic 𐡀𐡓𐡏𐡀 ʾarʿā land, soil, earth
          • Canaanite
            • Hebrew אֶרֶץ ʾéretz country, land, earth, ground
              • Hebrew אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל ʾéretz yisraél Land of Israel
            • Phoenician 𐤀𐤓𐤑 ʾrṣ earth, land
              • Punic 𐤀𐤓𐤎 ʾrs earth
          • Ugaritic 𐎀𐎗𐎕 ảrṣ earth, ground
            • Ugaritic 𐎀𐎗𐎕𐎊 ʾArṣay Divinity of the earth and underworld
      • Proto-Indo-European *h₁erTeH
        • Balto-Slavic
          • East Baltic
            • Lithuanian erdvė̃ space, expanse
        • Celtic
          • Brythonic
            • Welsh erw field, acre, erw
              • English erw
        • Germanic *erþō earth
          • East Germanic
            • Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐌰 airþa earth
          • North Germanic
            • Old Norse jǫrð
              • Danish jord earth, dirt, soil, ground
              • Icelandic jörð earth, ground, estate
              • Old Norse Jǫrð Personification of the earth A giantess and mother of Thor
                • Icelandic Jörð Jord
                  • English Jord
          • West Germanic
            • Old English eorþe earth, ground, dry land
              • English earth
                • English Middle Earth
              • Scots yird earth, Earth, to bury [1]
            • Frankish
              • Dutch aarde earth, soil, ground
                • Afrikaans aarde
                  • Afrikaans aardwolf aardwolf lit. "earth-wolf"
                    • Afrikaans erdwolf
                    • Dutch aardwolf aardwolf
                    • English aardwolf
                  • Afrikaans aardvark aardwolf lit. "earth-pig"
                    • Afrikaans erdvark
                    • English aardvark
            • Old High German erda Earth, soil, ground
              • German Erde Earth, soil, ground
              • Yiddish ערד erd Earth, earth, ground, soil
          • Germanic *erþōbazją strawberry lit. "earth-berry"
            • North Germanic
              • Old Norse jarðber strawberry
                • Danish jordbær strawberry
                • Icelandic jarðarber strawberry
            • West Germanic
              • Old English eorþberġe strawberry
              • Frankish
                • Dutch aardbei strawberry
                  • Malay arbei strawberry
              • Old High German erdberi strawberry
                • German Erdbeere strawberry
        • Hellenic *eraďe
          • Classical Greek ἔραζε éraze to/on the ground
  • Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃- to plow
    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂éryeti to be plowing
      • Balto-Slavic *arˀti
        • East Baltic
          • Lithuanian árti to plow
        • Slavic *oràti to plow
          • East Slavic
            • Russian ора́ть orátʹ to plow archaic
          • South Slavic
            • Serbo-Croatian о̀рати òrati to plow, to till
          • West Slavic
            • Polish orać to plow, to work hard
      • Celtic *aryeti to plow
        • Brythonic *ėrðɨd to plow
          • Welsh aredig to plow
        • Old Irish airid to plow, to till
          • Irish air to plow archaic
      • Germanic *arjanã to plow
        • East Germanic
          • Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 arjan to plow
        • North Germanic
          • Old Norse erja
            • Danish ærje
            • Icelandic erja to plow, to till
        • West Germanic
          • Old English erian to plow
            • English ear to plow archaic, dialectic
          • Old High German erren
      • Hellenic *aroyō to plow, to till
        • Classical Greek ἀρόω aróō I plow, I till, I sow, I beget
          • Classical Greek ἀροτήρ arotḗr plower, farmworker
      • Italic *araō
        • Latin arāre I plow, I till, I cultivate land, I acquire by farming
          • Central Romance
            • Italian arare to plow
          • Eastern Romance
            • Romanian a ara to plow
          • Insular Romance
            • Sardinian arai to plow
          • Western Romance
            • Spanish arar to plow
          • Latin arabilis able to be plowed, able to be farmed, capable of growing crops, arable
            • Central Romance
              • Italian arabile arable
            • Western Romance
              • French arable arable
                • English arable
    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃wós plowable, arable
      • Celtic *arwor
        • Brythonic
          • Welsh erw field, acre, erw
            • English erw
        • Old Irish arbar
          • Irish arbhar grain, cereal
      • Italic
        • Latin arvus arable, plowed, cultivated
    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂érh₃wons
      • Old Armenian հարաւունք harawunkʿ tilled land, fields, sowing
    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂érh₃ōs plowing action or result noun
      • Old Armenian արօս arōs untilled soil
        • Armenian արօս arōs fallow field
    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂érh₃trom plow instrumental
      • Old Armenian արօր arōr plow
        • Armenian արոր aror plow
      • Balto-Slavic *árˀtla plow
        • East Baltic
          • Lithuanian árklas scratch plow, ard
        • Slavic *òrdlo plow
          • East Slavic рало ralo
            • Russian ра́ло rálo plow
          • South Slavic
            • Old Church Slavonic рало ralo
            • Serbo-Croatian ра̏ло rȁlo plow, plowshare
          • West Slavic
            • Polish radło simple plow, ard
      • Celtic *aratrom plow
        • Brythonic *aradr plow
          • Welsh aradr plow
        • Old Irish
          • Irish arathar plow archaic
      • Germanic *arþrã plow
        • North Germanic
          • Old Norse arðr plow
            • Danish ard
            • Norwegian ard scratch plow, ard
              • English ard
            • Swedish årder scratch plow, ard
          • Finnic *atra plow
            • Finnish aura plow, V of birds
      • Hellenic
        • Classical Greek ᾰ̓́ροτρον árotron plow
          • Greek άροτρο árotro plow
      • Italic
        • Latin arātrum plow
          • Central Romance
            • Italian aratro plow
          • Eastern Romance
            • Romanian arat plow
          • Insular Romance
            • Sardinian aradu
          • Western Romance
            • French araire scratch plow, ard
            • Spanish arado plow
    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂érh₃tis
      • Germanic *ardiz nature, character, kind [2]
        • West Germanic
          • Old English eard homeland, earth, land, state, condition
            • Scots airt direction, area, to guide, to direct, to confine
            • Old English Middaneard the world, the inhabited world re-analyzed from Middanġeard
              • English Middle Earth
          • Frankish *ard
            • Dutch aard nature, character, disposition
          • Old High German *art
            • German Art kind, type, species, nature, method
              • German Mundart dialect
          • Old Saxon *ard
            • Low German Aard
            • Danish art kind, nature, species

Visual

Image is a visual representation of the text content above.

Collected English words

Jord, earth, Middle Earth, aardwolf, aardvark, ear, arable, erw, ard

Footnotes

  1. ^

    There seems to be some confusion over whether Scots yird is from eorthe (English earth) or ġeard (English yard). The evidence seems better for eorthe. Compare the re-analysis of Old English Middanġeard (Midgard) to Middaneard (Middle Earth).

  2. ^

    Germanic *ardiz: "nature, character, kind" is kind of odd. If you just looked at Old English eard: "homeland, earth, land, state, condition", that would seem to back up the connection to *h₂érh₃- suggested by the sounds. But none of the other languages have that "earth"/"land" connection. So, is Old English innovative in that (possibly mixing it up with eorþe), or is Old English conservative and thet Germanic should be understood as have a meaning more like "local character, the nature of a particular place or of the people from a particular place, the way things are done in a place"?

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