GR 1222          OROS

H 0403            ר ה

H 0403            ר ר ה

Concept of root : hill

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ר ה

ה ר ר

har;

hérèr

hill, mountain

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ר ה

ר ר ה

har;

hérèr

hill, mountain

h . r ;

h . r . r

Greek

ορος

oros

hill, mountain

. r

Russian

гора

gora

hill, mountain

g r

Dutch

haar

haar

hill

h r

Old Norwegian.

hār ;

haugr

-

har;

h(au)gr

-

high;

hill, mountain

h r ;

h . gr

 

 

Proto-Semitic *HAR --- *HĀR Indo-European

 

 

The Hebrew word " HAR" is well known to Europeans as the first part of "Armageddon", the "Har Megiddo" or "Megiddo-Hill" in Galilea, where many battles were fought in old times.

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew. The words of this entry have an interesting characteristic, in that the root of "hérèr" is a lengthened one of that of the word "har". Often we see roots of two consonants in Hebrew developed into roots of three consonants, just by doubling the second consonant. Usually we then talk about verbs, saying that Hebrew likes to have three consonants in a word, in order to better shape the necessary verbal forms. But in this case we see a noun growing into another noun with the same meaning. Another aspect is that Hebrew often changes the vowels of three consonant nouns into " E " . This is also seen in well known words as " melekh = king" and "sepher = book". In another forms of these nouns we will again see an A, that thus from there not has disappeared.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. The root of this entry is seen in Phoenician and has a cognate "gharri = mountain, hill" in Canaanite. It probably existed in Proto-Semitic "* ה ר , H R" .

 

Note:
  • Greek is different because it does not have the initial H. There exists another word with that H: "όρος , horos" and this means "limit, frontier". We can imagine that the two are related, as in the old times frontiers often coincided with high hills. Greek scholars see different roots for the two words, respectively "*er" for oros and "*werw" for horos. Both are little convincing. "Oros" is certainly related to the verb "ορνυμι , ornumi " = to (make) rise, but this verb has been built with two suffixes on the basis of the root "or" of oros .

     

    For "horos" the related word would be "ερυω , erϋo", but this means "to drag, take away" and seems too far from "horos" as a frontier or limit. It is the comparison with Germanic and Hebrew that convinces us that Greek "oros" and "horos" have a common origin in a root " *H R ", that means a hill or mountain, which frequently is a boundary .

 

Note:
  • Russian has a G that corresponds with Germanic and Hebrew H. This is quite reasonable as a difference in development between these groups.

 

Note:
  • Old Norwegian is interesting as it shows our root used for "high" and in order to make a mountain out of it inserts an U-sound (that leads to "au") and reinforces the final consonantial sound by inserting a G.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. Germanic again has its point of nearest contact with Hebrew in Dutch. That we do not see the meaning of "mountain" in this old and no more much used word, perhaps is explained by the fact that Holland has no mountains at all, only some hills. The basis is narrow, but Proto-Germanic may well have used a form "*H A R-" for "height, hill, mountain".

 

Note:
  • Indo-European.

     

    Old Indian uses "G R" in the word "girí = mountain"

     

    Avestan as well has "G R" in "gairi = mountain"

     

    Slavic has a hypothesis "*gora", identical to Russian as seen in the table. Other Slavic languages use sister words.

     

    Baltic with a hypothesis of "*gur-a-" is very near Slavic.

     

     

    Indo-European. The difficult problem is which two consonant combination was used: "G R" or "H R". Trying to find similarities between Indo-European and Semitic, we should not let ourselves be guided by the fact that Semitic has "H R". But in this case this seems an important factor. The vowel may well have been "A": "*H Ā R-", with "*G Ō R-" very improbable. So we try Indo-European "*H Ā R-".

 

 

 

 
"...the town, to which was given the name Babel, because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the world on the face of which He dispersed them. GENESIS 11,9"
 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 27/12/2012 at 14.01.19