E. ring & R. zven-/zvon-

[J.W.]

Ottawa (Canada), Thursday 21/10/04 22h45 EDT

Thank you, Mr Gallagher, for your attempt at responding to my question.

My apologies: I did not mean to imply I was searching for an
etymological connection between Russian and English here (although I can
see how that might have been inferred from my phrasing from the
question).

I was enquiring as to there might be any parallel INTRA-language
connections, in view of the fact that the two major semantic references
of English "RING" -- (1) a circular band and (2) a vibrating sound such
as that produced by a bell (as a noun, and as a verb both causal and
intransitive) -- are neatly parallelled in Russian by the root "ZVEN-",
which has these same two apparently disparate references: (1) "zveno" (a
link in a chain, but thereby a subset of the meaning of "kol'tso", i.e.
a circular band) and "zvenet'" (as an intransitive verb, signifying "to
give off a vibrating sound such as that produced by a bell").  Note that
the latter has the etymological relatives "zvon" and "zvonit'" for the
counterpart noun and causal verb, respectively.  All these Russian words
may be seen as corresponding to the different meanings and sub-meanings
of the English word "ring".

I should like to know whether there is some intrinsic semantic
connection between these outwardly disparate semantic references that
resulted in similar etymological developments in the two languages?  For
example, since a "ring" as an object is not usually associated with
"ring" as a sound -- perhaps the two are connected by something like the
bottom rim of a bell?  I can, however, see a little more logic in the
Russian combination "zveno zvenit", but even that is far from being an
inherent association.  (I'm sorry to say I have not sufficient
experience in etymological studies to be able to trace this on my own,
even with the help of an etymological dictionary.)  I would be most
grateful for any enlightenment on the part of anyone who knows.

Sincerely,

John Woodsworth
Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa

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