FW: [SEELANGS] pronun. of

[jdingley at YORKU.CA]

Hi,

>I'm not a Finnicist, but the finnish word looks
>suspiciously like an ancient borrowing from
>Indo-European, hence possibly also a taboo.

The Finnish word "karhu", the usual word for "bear" in Finnish, is not a
borrowing from IE. It is related to the words "karhea", "karkea", both
meaning "rough", "coarse". This root is Baltofinnic and is found in all
Baltofinnic languages.

"Karhu" is, however, a taboo word, being a calque on Swedish "björn"
"the brown one/the one with coarse hair".

Also calqued from Swedish is Finnish "verokarhu", "the taxman", cf.
Swedish "björn/björna" with meanings having to do with debt and tax.
This probably goes back to German, cf. "einen Bären anbinden" "to get
into debt", "einen Bären losbinden" "to pay off one's debts".

Finnish has other words for "bear", viz. "kontio", "nalle", "otso",
all three of uncertain origin but probably hypocorisms. There is one
more hypocorism, viz. "mesikämmen", the origin of which is clear, viz.
"honey + (palm of the) hand", somewhat similar to Russian "medved'".

John Dingley

Quoting Jules Levin <ameliede at EARTHLINK.NET>:

> At 08:37 AM 3/3/2008, you wrote:
> >Here is my two yen:
> >There was a good print artist of Finnish origin,
> >Clifton Karhu. He died last year in Japan where
> >he spent most of his life. So in some cases this
> >word was evidently not a taboo.
> >In Japanese, btw, the corresponding word is
> >'kuma' 熊 - which is possibly easier to utter than the Russian one.
>
> I'm not a Finnicist, but the finnish word looks
> suspiciously like an ancient borrowing from
> Indo-European, hence possibly also a taboo.
> Cf.  (cited here previously by Hugh Olmsted)
> Hittite 'hartagas', Sanskrit 'rksa' , reconstructed something like
> *h(2)rtKo-s
> So what goes around comes around...
> Jules Levin
>
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