E 0077          BEAN

The word "bean" is of Germanic origin

H 0053          א פ ו ן , א פ ו נ ה ,

Concept of root: pulse (seeds)

Hebrew word

Pronunciation

English meanings

א פ ו ן , א פ ו נ ה

aphuną , aphun

pea

Related English words

bean

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

א פ ו נ ה
א פ ו ן

aphuną , aphun

pea

aph(u)n(a)

English

bean

bean

b (ea) n

Swedish

bona

bona

bean

b (o) n(a)

Old High German

böna

böna

bean

b (o) n(a)

German

Bohne

bone

bean

b (o) n .

Dutch

boon

boon 

bean

b (o) n

 

 

Hebrew *APHUN --- *BŌN Indo-European

 

 

Potatoes, tomatoes, cocoa all came from the New World. And so did beans, with the exception of our "broad beans". And we had of course peas and Esau's lentils in Europe and the Middle East. These grow in a way that is very comparable with how beans grow. Therefore the similarity between Hebrew and the Germanic words is quite understandable. The roots In Old High German and Swedish are nearest to the Hebrew root.

 

The remaining difference is that Hebrew has added an initial confirming vowel, Aleph, here with the pronunciation as A. This kind of initial vowel is a rather frequent phenomenon, that Hebrew shares in fact with Greek.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic The Hebrew words are Post Biblical as far as written sources are concerned. There is no indication about their etymology and no hypothesis for Proto-Semitic seems feasible at the moment.

 

Note:
  • Greek and Latin have for "bean" two different, between them quite similar words ; respectively "φασηλος (phasčlos)" and "fasčlus". There is disagreement about who may have loaned it from whom, Latin from Greek or Greek from Latin. Greek scholars say their word may be related to another one, "φακος phakos = lentil", which is possible.

     

    Then Latin also has "faba = bean", that has also a version "haba". "Faba" is indeed considered to have been loaned into Greek, but we doubt this. These words are possibly far related to "bean", especially "faba", that indicates a Latin "*F A B-". One may note that an initial "F" in Latin or Greek may well be a development out of "P".

 

Note:
  • Germanic. The etymology of Old High German "böna" has not been cleared before. There has been also a version "bōna = bean". German has today "Bohne" and Swedish "bona" nearly like Old German. Swedish is the modern Germanic language that has "A" in many places where the other tongues have "E". In that respect it is nearer to Old High German. For example regarding verbs that end in "-an" instead of "-en".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic The consonants "B" and "N" are common in words for "bean" in all Germanic languages. The English vowel "ea" is as so often is the case, a development out of a long "O". Proto-Germanic in all probability had "* B Ō N".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. If we compare Latin "FAB" with Germanic "BON", there is little similarity, except in the meaning.

     

    And then Slavic has a hypothesis of "*B O BJ, based also on Russian "боб , bob = bean" with sisters in other languages.

     

    In Baltic there is Old Prussian "babo = bean" , suggesting a "*B A B- ", without believing that this would be a loanword from Polish "bób"!

     

    Albanian with its "bathe" confirms the first part.

     

    Indo-European remains uncertain, but the overall hypothesis "*B A B-", understood with an aspired pronounciation of the "B", like "BH", would mean that the final "N" in Germanic as well as the vowel "O" in Slavic and Germanic would be later developments, which is improbable. We note that within single languages there are also individual as well as local differences between aspired and non-aspired pronunciations of consonants. This makes it risky to consider such ways of speaking as fundamental for an old language.

     

    Indo-European may have had two versions, of which one has generated Latin fava: ""BŌB" > "FAV-" . Extended words like Latin "faselus" and Greek φακος, phakos = lentil" would then have lost the "V". Balto-Slavic languages maintained the two consonants "B", using either the old vowel "O" or an "U" as in Lithuanian "pupá" and Latvian "pupa". This remains rather hypothetical.

     

    The second version is the one found in Germanic languages, that like Hebrew have maintained a vowel "O/U" and the second consonant "N" : "*B Ō N-", or with a daring hypothesis even "*P Ū N-".

 

 

 

 

 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 25/09/2012 at 15.06.27