Baltų žinyčios vartai

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Sanskrit words compared to Baltic on the Example of Latvian

viršaitis gruodžio 6, 2012 Baltų kalbos

SANSKRIT LANGUAGE ORIGINS
SANSKRIT WORDS and BALTIC
Sanskrit words compared to Baltic on the Example of Latvian

SANSKRITA UN LATVIEŠU VALODAS LEKSIKAS SALĪDZINĀJUMS

Sanskrita valoda ir mirusi valoda, kas pielietota rakstībā vairākus tūktošus gadus atpakaļ pirms vairākiem tūkstošiem gadu.
Latviešu valoda pastāv joprojām.

From the Wikipedia, Sanskrit:

European scholarship in Sanskrit, begun by Heinrich Roth (1620–1668) and Johann Ernst Hanxleden (1681–1731),[25] is regarded as responsible for the discovery of the Indo-European language family by Sir William Jones. This scholarship played an important role in the development of Western philology, or historical linguistics….

Sir William Jones,
speaking to the Asiatic Society
in Calcutta (now Kolkata)
on February 2, 1786, said:

The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.

(see the table of comparisons further below, but read the following text if you have questions, please)

LEXICAL COMPARISON OF SANSKRIT AND LATVIAN
Why the comparison of Sanskrit and Baltic?
Sanskrit language is a sometimes said to be dead language (but not according to this court decision of the Madras High Court) attested only in written works several thousands of years old.

It has been „reconstructed“ by the linguists (see Sanskrit grammar).
Not everything they have concluded from ancient texts is correct, whereas Latvian is still a living language.

The Sanskrit words in the list below are thought by the scholars to be the simple forms, but since Sanskrit like Latvian is an inflected post-agglutinative language, the linguists have surely erred here and there, as they also do in deciphering agglutinative allegedly pre-inflection languages such as Sumerian.

In Sumerian, for example, they presume that words have U-endings as nominatives,
whereas words in Sumerian temple verses, etc.
show that dative construction is often used (so my findings)
rather than nominatives which means that
the dative form is the subject
while in the object is nominative.

Linguists have assumed the subject is nominative.
Such U-ending dative forms — as subjects –have been mistaken as nominatives,
making for a clumsy, inaccurate Sumerian grammar.

Here is a Latvian example of dative construction:
TĒVAM IR MĀJA =
FATHER (dative) HAS a HOUSE (nominative),
literally „FATHER’S IS (the) HOUSE“

Try this one in Latvian:
TVU MĀJU DEVU =
„I“ (the „I“ is assumed) FATHER’s HOUSE GAVE

The current modern roots for those words
are TĒVS (nominative) and MĀJA (nominative).
There is no nominative form in the whole phrase.
For sentences like that in Sumerian,
scholars would give those words U-stems, erroneously.

Note that Latvian like ancient Pharaonic Egyptian or Sumerian has no definite or indefinite articles.

That is the „UR-ZUSTAND“ of proto-Indo-European, showing again how archaic the Baltic languages are.

My father came from Livonia, land of the Livs, called VIDZEME, „middle earth“, in Latvian, which is where the purest, central dialect of Latvian is spoken
viz. was spoken before the modern era.

Latvian became somewhat Russified during the period of occupation after WWII, especially in the big cities, but there are also plenty of loan words from English as well.

In rural Livonia, the truest Latvian form of „I am“ is still ES ESU, (esu „am“ is thus an extension of being, of es „the self“) whereas much of Latvia modernly says „ES ESMU“, surely a later variant.
Some familieis in Livonia still use very archaic vowel stems in many words where modern Latvian has lost them.
An example would be the modern Latvian word agrs „early“ whereas in Livonia one might say agris, retaining the more archaic i-stem.

Livonia borders on Estonia and the Estonian language is viewed to be agglutinative, like Finnish.

In fact, there are many similarities between Latvian and Estonian, many of them camouflaged by differing orthography and incompletely researched linguistics.

There is a widespread theory, for example, that the Saami take their name from the Baltic word zeme meaning „earth“, borrowed and re-borrowed according to the amusing fantasy of the linguists.

The Saami to the North of Latvia is a land of thousands of lakes and islands and hardly would have been called „land“ or „earth“.

In fact, the most cogent theory is my theory that the term Saami (Latvian SOMI „Finns“) relates to the Latvian terms ziema „Winter“ and ziemeļi „North“.

The simplest explanation is often the right one. We still divide America into Northerners and Southerners.

Originally in Latvian, as Franz Bopp, the founder of comparative linguistics argued,
demonstrative pronouns were agglutinated to word roots and this gave rise to inflection in the course of time.

In modern Latvian, the intervening vowel in the agglutinated pronouns is often lost.
Here is how the demonstrative pronouns were added:

Latvian MAN-TAS „mine that“ became MANTAS „property, i.e. belonging to me“

MAN-TO-JUMS „mine that to you“ or MAN-DO-JUMS „me give you“ became MANTOJUMS „testated property“

MAN-DO-ŠANA „me-give-that“ became
MANTOŠANA „the process of inheritance“

Modern linguists do not recognize this. They live in an aritificial world
of purported grammatic rules of their own construction.

PIE-ROKAS-TAS „by – the hand – that“ became PIRKSTAS „finger“ and that became PIRKSTS viz. PIRKSTIS „finger“  etc.

We are thus not much interested in grammatical forms. Rather, we equate WORDS, regardless of their grammatical form. The grammatical forms are mutable and almost totally irrelevant to these word equations.

To take one example out of the lexical equations below, let us take Sanskrit asru,
which I equate with the Latavian word asaru.

Grammatically, Latvian asara is singular and asaras is plural for „tears of the eye“, but if we look at the word IN ACTUAL USE
Tik daudz asaru! = So many tears!, is
a recent posting headline in Latvian.

When I first put up this page many years ago it was still difficult to get proper diacritic letters for the Latvian language for online use, but that is now possible. Hence, although I dislike diacritical marks in the modern computer age as sheer time-wasters, I add them here, whereas I left them out of the original page as posted.

I am a NATIVE Latvian speaker so do not presume that I do not know the correct forms. I do. However, I do not always use the nominative form of the nouns or the infinitive form of verbs and in past versions of this page I used „uo“ for the Latvian „o“, a German orthography of Latvian in early days of contact, since „uo“ more closely approximates the actual sound in Latvian „o“, which is not like the „o“ in English.

I also use word forms found in the Latvian Dainas or other literature that may not conform exactly to moden spoken Latvian, which in Riga now has many foreign elements and influences
both — Russian and English — for example.

Over the years I have received all kinds of emails suggesting word „corrections“, and I promised some of the well-meaning posters to change the orthography and/or add explanations of terms, which I now finally do, in 2012.

If I find the word used online as I use it, I add a link, so there should be no misunderstandings.

Recall:
The Sanskrit language is a dead language attested only in written works
several thousands of years old. Latvian still exists.

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word (links in blue)	Meaning (identical in both languages)
abhi	abi	„both“
agra	agra, agri	„early“
asmi	esmu	„am“
asnas	asins, asinis (some Latvian areas still retain the archaic „i“-stem)	„blood“
asru	asaru nom. sing. asara, plural is asaras	„tear(s) of the eye“
asti	ēsti	„to eat“
avata	avota nom. avots	„spring water, source“
bhalto	balto nom. balts	„light, bright, white“
bhanga	banga	„billow, wave“
bharata	barota	„feed, fed, take care of“
bhedati	bēdāti bēdāties	„worry, grieve“
bhuti	būti	„be, exist“
bhy s	bijās	„feared, was afraid“
cathurth	ceturtā	„fourth“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word (links in blue)	Meaning (identical in both languages)
dala	daļa	„part, division“
dina	diena	„day“
d hati	degot(i)	„burn(ing) (fire)“
Dyaus	Dievs	„Deus, God“
devah	devēj(s)	„giver“
dhuma	dūma (usually dūmu) dūmi	„of smoke“ „smoke“
drgha	dārga dārgs	„expensive“
dhurti	durti (seen as Lithuanian but used as e.g. caurdurti „puncture“ in Latvian) Latv. durt	„injure, stab“ literally „the act of stabbing“ or „poking through“
dusim	dosim mēs dosim	„give, will give“ „we shall give“
dhruva	druva	„field of grain“ „cornfield“
duris	duris modernly durvis	„door“
*d	ēd	„eat“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word (links in blue)	Meaning (identical in both languages)
ga*s	govs	„cow, cattle“
gospada	govs pēda	„cow track“
griva	grīva	„mouth, estuary, firth“
ganisan	ganīšana	„shepherding,  pasturage“
grabh	grāb	„grab“
jiv	dzīv(s)	„alive“
j*vati	dzīvot(i)	„live“
yukt	jūgti jūgs	„harness“ „yoke“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word	Meaning (identical for both languages)
krmi	ķirmis	„wood-eater, borer, worm“
katha	kā tā	„how that“
kada	kad	„when“
kas	kas	„what“
kataras	katris	„each“
kliba	kliba	„unable, lame“
kuti	kūti nom. kūts	„shed, coop, stable, barn“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word	Meaning (identical for both languages)
mat*h	māte	„mother“
manita	manīta	„known, observed, noticed, spotted“
madhu	medus medu is a grammatical form	„honey“ (root of term for „mead“)
mith	mīt	„change“
mukti	mukt(i)	„run off, run away, scoot off“
n*kt	nakt(s)	„night“
nabhi	naba nabiņa dim.	„navel“
okas	ēkas	„buildings“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word	Meaning (identical for both languages)
pl*si	bluši modernly blusas	„fleas“
palava	pelava	„chaff“
p*tis	patis modernly pats	„self“
pratikama	patīkama	„pleasant, agreeable, nice“
pretvira	Rainis: „Tu lauzi mūs, naidīgā pretvara“	„opponents, contra power“
prasnaya	prašņaja	„question“
pluti	plūdi	„flood(s), floodwaters“
r*tha	rats rati rata	„wheel, wheels, of wheels“
rasa	rasa	„dew“
rud	raud raudāt	„cries“ „cry“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word	Meaning (identical for both languages)
sad	sēd sēdēt „to sit“	„sits“
spurdh*se	spārdijās spārdīšana	„kicked, fought“ „kicking, fighting“
sana	sen sena	„long ago“ „old“
sunas	sunis modernly suns	„dog“ for sunis Google „mans sunis“
sth	stāvēt stāv	„stand“ „stands“
slaviti	slavēti	„praise, glorify“
svanta	svinēt	„celebrate“
sirsnas	„no sirsnas“ sirsniņa dim. nom. sirds sirsnība	„from the heart“ „heart“ dim. „heart“ „heartiness“
saditi	stādīti	„plant“
skabh	skāb(s)	„unhappy, sour“
srava	strava	„stream, current“
sabara	sabāra sabārt	„scold(ed) scold“
svarah	svara nom. svars	„of weight“ „weight, force“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word	Meaning (identical for both languages)
talau jihva	tālu dzīvo	„far live“
tava	tava	„yours“
tatha	tā	„there“
ti	ēdi	„eat“
trayas	trīs	„three“
trasati	trīcēt(i)	„tremble“
ud*	ūdens	„water“
udhar	ūdris	„otter“

Sanskrit Word	Latvian Word	Meaning (identical for both languages)
vayus	vējis modernly vējš	„wind“
vrkas	vilks	„wolf“
vira	vīrs gen. vīra	„man, husband“
vrdhi	vārdi	„words“
visur	visur	„everywhere“
varuni	varoņi	„winners, heroes“
vacala	vācele	„gossip“
virsus	virsus modernly virs	„above, over, top“ „over, on top of“
vayu	vāju nom. vājš	„weak“
Dev datta	Dieva dota	„God given“

Pagal lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi51.htm

© 2012, viršaitis. All rights reserved.