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Lis just picked up from the library a book on the history of languages. And she randomly flipped to some pages.
And, well. The author was just doing some pretty wild speculation. But, it's the kind of speculation that, whether you believe it's possible or not, it just makes you want to write roleplaying game adventures. . .
The book is Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter. And, on the page that Lis flipped open to, he was discussing weird similarities between Proto-Germanic and early Semitic roots. Like, for instance, how the proto-Germanic word ofer, from which we get "over", means both "over" and "shore," with a sort of basic meaning of boundary/crossing sort of thing.
And how the Semitic root which in Hebrew is עבר was used for "shore" or "riverbank", and has a basic meaning of "crossing over." And is pronounced " 'iver " (And is the root word for "Hebrew" -- the early tribal name of my people is "the crossing-over folks", or "the folks from Over There", and we get the name of the language from the tribal name.)
Okay, fine. An interesting coincidence, may be meaningful, may not. If it IS meaningful, it may be linguistic contamination, or it may be a sign of an earlier common ancestor.
Or, if it IS cultural contamination . . . the Phoenicians are always a good candidate to contaminate other cultures.
Okay. The main Phoenician god was Baal 'Adir, for "Baal the Great." (Since Baal could be a general term for a god, distinguishing the main one as "the Great" makes sense.) Are there any proto-Germanic gods who have similar names to that, and are associated with great ships, and, at whose funeral pyre there was a human sacrifice?
Is this a stretch? Oh, yeah, totally. But you can see where it makes you want to write roleplaying settings.
And, well. The author was just doing some pretty wild speculation. But, it's the kind of speculation that, whether you believe it's possible or not, it just makes you want to write roleplaying game adventures. . .
The book is Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter. And, on the page that Lis flipped open to, he was discussing weird similarities between Proto-Germanic and early Semitic roots. Like, for instance, how the proto-Germanic word ofer, from which we get "over", means both "over" and "shore," with a sort of basic meaning of boundary/crossing sort of thing.
And how the Semitic root which in Hebrew is עבר was used for "shore" or "riverbank", and has a basic meaning of "crossing over." And is pronounced " 'iver " (And is the root word for "Hebrew" -- the early tribal name of my people is "the crossing-over folks", or "the folks from Over There", and we get the name of the language from the tribal name.)
Okay, fine. An interesting coincidence, may be meaningful, may not. If it IS meaningful, it may be linguistic contamination, or it may be a sign of an earlier common ancestor.
Or, if it IS cultural contamination . . . the Phoenicians are always a good candidate to contaminate other cultures.
Okay. The main Phoenician god was Baal 'Adir, for "Baal the Great." (Since Baal could be a general term for a god, distinguishing the main one as "the Great" makes sense.) Are there any proto-Germanic gods who have similar names to that, and are associated with great ships, and, at whose funeral pyre there was a human sacrifice?
Is this a stretch? Oh, yeah, totally. But you can see where it makes you want to write roleplaying settings.