About the Yew1

[Stanley Friesen]

At 09:31 AM 6/4/01 +0000, Douglas G Kilday wrote:

> I'm well aware that cognate dendronyms can refer to different trees in
> different languages, and examples from IE and Semitic occur in my own
> postings. But in fact Taxus baccata _is_ quite distinctive as trees go.

Very distinctive.  I would almost say unique among northern hemisphere trees.

>> The main problem I think with using the yew word to locate PIE is, of
>> course, that the "yew" was not always a "yew."  And this only makes sense,
>> since trees don't move and that means what you call a yew or don't call a
>> yew and what I call a yew in the next valley could be two different trees --
>> up until such time as we obtain Polaroid cameras. Or up until we get around
>> to cutting them down and selling the wood, scrapping their bark for extract
>> or perhaps in the case of the yew, eating their berries.  It would be the
>> by-products, not the tree, that we could discuss in common.

> I don't see that Polaroid cameras are necessary. If you and I belong to the
> same tribe, and we don't agree on what to call trees in the next valley,
> then our use of language is dysfunctional. Do you really believe that
> prehistoric humans were linguistically incompetent?

More than that, people who live close to nature are often very good at
identifying what they live among.   A good example of this can be found in
a monograph on rainforest trees of Borneo that I know of.  Guess how the
author identified the trees.  Yep, he used a native guide.  As I remember
it, he even discovered one or two new species based on the fact that his
native guide gave them different names.

A tribal people would have to be truly incompetent to mistake the yew for
anything else, or vice versa.

> Celtic has preserved pre-IE *ebur- 'yew' rather extensively in toponyms,
> ethnonyms, and personal names, and also Irish <ibhar> 'yew; bow' beside <eo>
> 'yew'. The stem *ebur- also appears in toponyms in Iberia, Liguria,
> Campania, and probably Greece (Ephura:, old name of Corinth and other
> places). In my opinion *ebur- belongs with the Old European substrate
> associated with the expansion of Neolithic farmers across Europe (ca.
> 5500-4000 BCE).

It has that appearance to me also.

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net