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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 1 |
The definition for "countervail" included this:
"Ultimately, from the Indo-European root wal- (to be strong) that is also the source of valiant, avail, valor, and value."
I wonder if wali (Encarta Encycl. "Wali, honorific title in Islam, given to a saint or wise and holy person, especially to the Sufi masters. In Arabic it means “defender, companion,...") is related?
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
In Arabic it means “defender, companion,...") is related?
I doubt it. Arabic descends from a (reconstructed) Proto-Semitic (as do Hebrew, Aramaic, and Amharic). Proto-Indo-Eruopean is reconstructed from the various Indo-European languages. To go back farther is probably not possible. (Although some have tried. You might look for a Nostratic forum to ask.) It's probably just a chance similarity.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Isn't it interesting how different languages developed? Some more vowelized, some more consonantized, some melodic, some harsh-sounding; then there are languages such as Chinese: does that even have vowels and consonants? Lots of dependence on intonation, I understand. And, I was just thinking yesterday about the African languages that include clicking (can't think of what that's called), and how that might have developed, as in: perhaps people started using a particular group of clicks to mean, say, run; then added...uh, what to call it?--sounds that could be spelled, perhaps--for different pre-/suffixes, tenses, or something. Click-oo would mean running, click-ah would mean ran. [shrug]
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