GD 1119          ZWAAG

H 0869            ג ו ס

Concept of root : surrounding

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ג ו ס

sawug

surrounded, fenced

Related English words

none

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ג ו ס

sawug

surrounded, fenced

z . w . g

Dutch

zwaag

zwaagh

surroun-dings

z w . gh

 

 

Proto-Semitic *SUG (*sawag) --- *SWĀG- Proto-Germanic

 

 

With a small interface of two old words we find a similarity that indicates a quite possible common origin for these. We played the trick of adding between brackets a version in which the "Waw" is pronounced as a consonant, with the consequent use of two vowels " A " . This version may normally have existed though there is no proof of this. Then one sees in fact an amazing similaritiy. Besides this, the classic difference between the Semitic practice of using two vowels in a three consonant root against Germanic using one vowel, is known.

 

 

Note:
  • Hebrew and Dutch. The Dutch word "zwaag", in Middle Dutch originally indicated the fence around a surrounding terrain instead of the surroundings of a dwelling or village. Then it also acquired the meaning of the fenced meadow or grounds. So this tallies with the meaning of this root in Modern Hebrew, that is : "to enclose, surround".

     

    Again we see no cognates from other branches of Indo-European and the comparison stays between Semitic and Germanic.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root with this meaning is present in Aramaic "ס ו ג, sug" and Syriac "ס ג , S G ", both meaning " he fenced about" and then in both tongues "ס י ג א, sigà = fence". There is a cognate in Arabic "siyaj = enclosure", in which the "G" has become "Y" as so often in English, and the "U" has become an " I ". The root like in Hebrew may well have been in use in Proto-Semitic: "*ס ו ג , S W G". We present it in the comparison also between brackets with a classical couple of vowels " A ".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic and Indo-European. The word in Middle Dutch "swaech" has its sisters, basically with the same couple of meaning : "surrounding fence" and "fenced grounds around ( a settlement)". There is Old Frisian "swāg", Modern Frisian "swaech" and indeed Old High German "sweiga". It may have been present in Proto-Germanic as "*S W Ā G-". We would like to point out that these words are not related, as some seem to believe, to words for "to bend", that have no semantic links to the "fenced meadow". We have seen no link to possible cognates in other groups of Indo-European languages.

 

 

 

 
"...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: 28/11/2012 at 12.51.33