Bears and why they mostly are called otherwise

[Xavier Delamarre]

Ante Aikio wrote :

>But it is precisely the descriptive names that are created for taboo reasons.
>E.g. Finnish has karhu 'bear' < karhea 'coarse' (referring to fur), kontio
>'bear' < kontia 'crawl on all fours' (referring to manner of motion). As
>for 'destruction', there's Finnish hukka 'wolf' = hukka 'loss,
>destruction', hukkua 'get lost, perish, drown'. These words predate zoos,
>for sure ;-)

As for Finnish _karhu_, I have proposed (_Historische Sprachforschung_ 105,
1992, pp 151-54) that it could be a loan from a Proto-Aryan form
_*harkSas_, itself from IE _*h2rtk'os_, with hardening of the laryngeal
(very much like _kana_ 'chicken' from Germanic _*xana_, or _teke_ 'to do'
from IE _*dheH1-_) and  regular outcome of Uralic and Aryan -kS- into _h_,
in Baltic Finnish (O.Ind. _makSa:_ 'fly' = Mordvin _mekS_ = Finn.
_mehi(lainen)_ 'bee'). Mentioned by Szemerényi in his _Introduction to IE
Ling._, 53.

The etymology of _karhu_ by _karhea_ 'coarse' (J. Mägiste, _Estn. Etym.
Wörtb._, followed by Itkonen & Alii, _Suomen Sanojen Alkuperä_) is probably
a 'popular etymology'.

The existence in Finnish (and Uralic) of very archaic loans from various IE
strata (late IE, Aryan, Baltic, Germanic etc), which are, so to say,
'fossilised' in the language, is in my view the strongest argument for a
Eurasian Urheimat.

I am presently dealing with Old Celtic lexicography where, as is well
known, the word for 'bull' is _taruos_ (Gaulish _taruos_, O.Ir. _tarb_
etc.) a metathesised form of IE _*tauros_, maybe on the analogy of _caruos_
'deer'. The funny thing is that we have a Finnish word _tarvas_ designating
big cervidae, which shows the same metathesis as Celtic (whereas there is
none in Aryan, Baltic & Germanic). But it may be pure coincidence or we
have to postulate that the loan was made somewhere in present Russia,
before (Proto-)Celts entered Central Europe.

Xavier Delamarre
Ljubljana