A couple of questions about etymology

[Henryk Duda]

"Alexey I. Fuchs" wrote:

>         I am trying to trace a couple of slavic words to their roots.
>         The words for example are:
>
>                 1.Doroga (road, Rus.) - I am trying to connect it to
> Hebrew "derekh," taking onto account, apart from phonological similarity,
> the unusual gender of the Hebrew word - it's feminine. The reason for
> being feminine in Hebrew is irrelevant, but the fact itself seems to
> emphasize the connection (light evidence, though).

I think Hebrew "derekh" may be related to arabic "daraga" 'to go, to
walk, to move, to proceed' and to other words in
Afroasiatic languages, for instance Akkadian "daraggu" 'path'. See
Bomhard, A. and J. C. Kerns 1994:272.

According to Bomhard & Kerns Proto-Afroasiatic stem *dar-/*der- 'to go,
to walk, to proceed; to wrap, to wind, to twist' and Proto-Indo-European
*d[h]erg[h] 'to turn' are both of the same origin - from Proto-Nostratic
*dar-/*der- 'to bend, to twist, to turn'.

Is the Proto-Slavonic *dorga (> Russian "doroga", Polish "droga", Old
Church Slavonic "draga") related to this Proto-Indo-European
*d[h]erg[h]? I am not sure.

Bomhard, A. and J. C. Kerns, 1994, The Nostratic Macrofamily. A Study in
Distant Linguistic Relationship, Berlin, New York:Mouton de Gruyter.


Dr Henryk Duda
--
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski
Katedra Jjzyka Polskiego

e-mail: henryk.duda at kul.lublin.pl
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