Taboo replacements

[Eugene Kalutsky]

-----Original Message-----
From: JoatSimeon at aol.com <JoatSimeon at aol.com>
Date: zaterdag 10 april 1999 10:51

>In a message dated 4/8/99 9:07:20 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
>nicholas.widdows at traceplc.co.uk writes:

>>What would constitute evidence for this, and for "brown" or "honey-eater"
>>over the ursa/arktos/rakshasa root, being a taboo replacement, as opposed
>>to a common-or-garden lexical innovation?

My grandfather taught me when taking me to the taiga in Siberia that one
should avoid saying  the word "medved' " (Rus. 'bear', lit. 'he who knows
honey' - already a taboo replacement) aloud while in the forest, because "he
just might show up to see who's calling his name", i.e. to avoid a dangerous
encounter with a bear while gathering berries or mushrooms. Instead he told
me to use the words "xoz'ain" (master) or "kosolapyj" (the intoed). At the
same time he instructed me to always put the first berry or mushroom found
on top of a stump as a gift to the "khoz'ain lesa" ("master of the forest").
Doesn't this count as evidence for taboo replacement?

>Exactly.  After all, there was no taboo making the Romance languages shift
>their work for "horse" from the Latin derivative of *ekwos to "caballus".

>Aparently it was simply a shift, as if we'd stopped using "horse" and
>substituted "nag" or "glue-bait" or "cayuse".

In support of the above:
In Modern Russian usage there are several words for "horse" - the most
common - "loshad' " - is emotionally neutral, another commonly used term is
"kon' " - which is more affectionate and can be used to describe a warhorse
("loshad' " just doesn't sound right when talking about a warhorse). The
third most commonly used term is "kobyla" and it has a derogative sense -
just one notch above "kl'acha" (nag).

Gene Kalutsky