E 0226          CWELAN

The Old English word " cwelan " is of Germanic origin .

H 0472            ל י ח                     

Concept of root :  physical suffering

 Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

 ל י ח

 ghil

 pains, suffering

Related English words

Old English cwelan

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ל י ח

-

ghil

 pains, suffering

 gh . y . l <

*gh . w . l

Old English

cwelan ;

cwellan

to die ;

to kill

c w . l

Old High German

quelan ;

-

quellan

-

kwélan;

-

kwèllan

-

to suffer pains;

to make suffer

qu . l

German

Qual ;

-

-

quälen

kwál;

-

-

kwélen

lasting ailment, suffering;

to make suffer

qu . l

Dutch

kwaal

-

-

kwellen

kwál

-

-

kwèllen

lasting ailment, suffering;

to make suffer

k w . l

Old Norse

kvol

kvol

suffering

k v . l

Lithuanian

gelà

gelà

pain

g . l

 

 

Proto-Semitic *GHIL < *GHOL --- *KWĀL- Indo-European

 

 

The words of this entry can be seen as related to those of the entrie E 0018 "ail, ill " (Hebrew 0471) .

 

Ailments can be lasting and painful. In the mentioned entriy a similarity between English and this Hebrew root was considered. Here instead we have an even closer relationship with another set of words, found in German and Dutch . English "to quell", if related at all, has very much changed its message.

 

This all means that one root, about ailment and the likes, in Indo European has gone through quite diverging developments of word-shaping . One in which the initial guttural GH as seen in Hebrew has disappeared, the other one in which it has been sharpened into K. The following " O " in Semitic is then comparable to the following " W " in Indo-European : "GHO" , related to "KW".

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew presents meanings very similar to German and Dutch . It is a probable development of an older root, in which the central Y still was a W. This ancient root "ח ו ל , GH W L " is directly comparable to the Germanic ones. The difference remains that between K and GH, not all too decisive and perhaps just a development in time .

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root is also seen in Akkadian " ghāli = labor pains" and it may have been present with the same message in Proto-Semitic : "*ח ו ל , GH W L "

 

Note:
  • German and Dutch have abolished the verbs of this root for " to suffer", but maintained the causative verbs . They also maintained the substantives .

 

Note:
  • English " to quell ", if related at all, has drifted away very much from the original message of this root. Already Old English "cwelan" , that had gone from "suffering " to "dying" had deviated considerably, while it also had the causative verb with a double L , "cwellan" for " to kill" .

     

    Also Old English had the somewhat different verb " cyllan ", that meant and became " to kill". This is very interesting, because in sound it has followed the same development seen in Hebrew, with the old W becoming an Y, and then pronounced " I ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic. To the words of this entry we can add Old Saxon " quelan; qual = to suffer pains; (lasting) pain" and Old Norse "kvelja; kvol" with the same pair of meanings. Proto-Germanic probably had a root "KW . L-" that led to the different forms "*KW E L-" for the verbs and "*KW A L-" for the nouns.

 

Note:
  • Indo-European . A Slavic "*zjalj", with identical Russian has been linked to the words of this entry, but the meaning "pity, shame, regret" is rather far off. Nearer comes Baltic:

     

    Baltic has a hypothesis of "*G . L", with various possible vowels ( also "*G I L-". Just looking at Lithuanian "gelà = serious pain, suffering" we see a similarity with Germanic, though the consonant "W" is absent, with the possible exception in the developed "*gil-" ( "I" out of "W" as in Semitic).

     

    Latvian has an isolated old word "galit" = to perish", and this is considered related to the words of this entry. This is uncertain.

     

    Celtic , often changes the initial "G" into "B" . With less precision we find Old Irish "at-baill = he dies" and Middle Cymric "ballu = to perish".

     

    Armenian gives a contribution with "kełem = to cause pain".

     

     

    Indo-European only in Germanic shows clearly the " W ", in "KW ", that is the most near to Semitic. In the case of common origin, this "KW" should have been present in the earliest times. That hypothesis is obvious: "*KW Ā L-", but possibly with already a developing "*K I L-", as referred to in entry E 0501 (Hebrew 0489).

 

 

 

 
"...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: 28/10/2012 at 15.10.44