Posted by Victor Mair
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One does not usually associate horses with premodern Africa, yet we have words for "horse" in many African languages:
Ancient Egyptian (Gardiner): ()
ssmt,
ỉbr ‘horse’. VHM:
Wikipedia has E6 U+13007 (
ssmt, jbr
There is also a widespread root mur (< mre?) meaning 'horse' also in Africa:
Gule (isolate) musal, Bertha (isolate) mùrθá. Gaahmg (Jebel) mɔ̄sɔ̀r, Berti (Saharan) burto, Bagirmi (Central Sudanic) mōrʧē ‘bay horse’, Kenga (Central Sudanic) mɔ̄rcɔ̄ ‘brown and lightly spotted horse’, Fer and Kara (Central Sudanic) mótà, Yulu (Central Sudanic) mɔ́tɛ̀, Kresh m(ɔ́)rɔ́tɔ́ (Kresh-Aja), Dongo (Kresh-Aja) merèti, Dar Fur Daju and Njalgulgule (Dajuic) murtane, Baygo (Dajuic) murtanej, Dar Sila Daju (Dajuic) murta, Logorik and Shatt (Dajuic) moxta, Fur (Furan) murta, Ama (Nyimang) mɔ̀rd̪ù, Dinik (Nyimang) mɔ́rt̪à, Temein (Temeinic) mántà, Tese (Temeinic) móʈò, Ebang (Heibanian) miɽt̪a, Koalib (Heibanian) mòrtːà, Moro (Heibanian) èmə̀rt̪á, Otoro (Heibanian) mərtaŋ, Shwai and Tira (Heibanion) mərt̪a, Katla (Katla-Tima) murteka, Tima (Katla-Tima) kɘ-mə̀rt̪áːʔ, Kadugli and Kanga (Kadu) mʊ̀t̪ːʊ́, Krongo (Kadu) mot̪o, Tagoi (Rashadian) màrdà, Tegali (Rashadian) marta, Nobiin and Old Nubian (Nubian) murti.
These forms ultimately derive from Proto-Nubian *murti ‘horse’, consisting of a root *mur and the singulative suffix *-ti. The root *mur, in turn, is probably a loan from Meroitic mre-ke.
From Zamponi, R. in press. Gule. London and New York: Routledge.
When I saw this long list of words for horse in African languages, particularly these words, I was dumbfounded. So I asked Don Ringe what he made of it.
He replied:
Outside my area of expertise. But since horses are not native to Africa, it would be no surprise if a word for 'horse' were widely borrowed from language to language, which is what the pattern of attestation suggests (multiple languages belonging to multiple families).
That is what I was hoping he'd say.
Beverley Davis*:
Since the horse was introduced to Africa, it only makes sense it would use the language of the ones to introduced it. It's like the Berber word for horse is related to the Persian word for horse aspa. I cannot find the Berber word on line.
*author of "Timeline of the Development of the Horse", Sino-Platonic Papers", 177 (August, 2007), 1-186, viewed by millions of readers
Selected readings
- "The Linguistic Diversity of Aboriginal Europe" (1/6/09)
- "Horse and wheel in the early history of Indo-European" (1/10/09)
- "The linguistic history of horses, gods, and wheeled vehicles" (1/13/09)
- "Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China" (11/11/19)
- "Mare, mǎ ("horse"), etc." (11/17/19)
- "Early evidence for mounted horseback riding in northwest China"
Yue Li, Chengrui Zhang, William Timothy Treal Taylor, Liang Chen, Rowan K. Flad, Nicole Boivin, Huan Liu, Yue You, Jianxin Wang, Meng Ren, Tongyuan Xi, Yifu Han, Rui Wen, and Jian Ma
PNAS first published November 2, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2004360117
- "Once more on Sinitic *mraɣ and Celtic and Germanic *marko for 'horse'" (4/28/20)
- "A Record of Horseback Riding, Written in Bone and Teeth: Close examination of horse remains has clarified the timeline of when equestrianism helped transform ancient Chinese civilization", NYT, by Katherine Kornei (11/13/20)
- "Horse culture comes east" (11/15/20)
- Victor H. Mair. "The Horse in Late Prehistoric China: Wresting Culture and Control from the 'Barbarians'." In Marsha Levine, Colin Renfrew and Katie Boyle, ed. Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse, McDonald Institute Monographs (Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2003), pp. 163-187.
- "Evolution of the sinograph and the word for horse" (2/16/26)
[h.t. Carl Masthay]
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