Re: Hebrew _h'atul_ vs. Arabic _qit't'_ (was Re: THEORY nouns and cases)

Staving Danny Wier:
>From: "Adam Walker" <carrajena@...>
>
> > Asa far as the origin of "cat" in the European
> > languages, my Spaninsh etymological dictionary says:
> >
> > Gato 'mamífero carnívero doméstico, _Felis cattus_':
> > latín tardío _cattus_, _gattus_ 'gato', posiblemente
> > de origen camítico (de la misma familia que el beréber
> > _kaddîska_ y que el nubiense _kadi:s, los dos =
> > 'gato').
>
>I was aware of the Nubian origin, but didn't know the Berber. I wonder if
>the original word refers to cats in general (including lions and tigers and
>other big cats), or just the small cats the ancient Egyptians and Nubians
>had for pets.
>
>The Egyptian word is a more onomatopoeic _m3w_, which is more like Chinese
>_m(i)ao_.
Khangaþyagon also uses the onomatopoeic mihyu [mihju:]. It's not the only
onomatopoeic species name - raven is karrkak [ka:rk&k]. I was in Tokyo when
I thought of the latter. Other known species names include glaf [gl&f]
"horse" and babal [b&b&l] "butterfly", which was inspired by the fact that
reduplication and bilabials seem to be common in words for butterfly. Egret
is issuli [is:u:li] and bird in general is zerrish [zeriS]. Beast is gravd
[g4&vd].

Pete

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