0887_sha_a page

E 0769 SCĒON , GESCĒON

The Old English verbs " scēon " and gescēon " are of Germanic origin .

H 0887 ה ע ש

Concept of root : to happen

Hebrew word		pronunciation				English meanings
ה ע ש ה ע ש ה ע ה ש		sha‛à sha‛à hishé‛à				to turn, take place; - short time, moment, hour

Related English words				Old English scēon, gescēon

Comparison between European words and Hebrew
Languages	Words		Pronunciation		English meanings		Similarity in roots
Hebrew	ה ע ש ; - ה ע ש ; - - ה ע ש ה		sha‛à ; - sha‛à ; - - hishə‛à		to turn, take place; short time, moment, hour; to turn away		sh . (‛) .
Old English	scēon, gescēon				to happen, take place		sc .
German	geschehen		gesheyen		to happen, take place		sh . h
Middle Dutch	geschien, schien		ghesghìen, sghìen		to happen, take place		sgh .
Norwegian	skje		shé		to happen, take place		skj .
Swedish	ske		shé		to happen, take place		sk .

Proto-Semitic SHA'À --- SKĀ-, *SKĒ- Proto-Germanic

Culturally we observe that a link exists between two concepts :

1. the execution of a rotating or revolving displacement : to turn, and
2. a specific moment or period in which an action takes place : a turn
This is confirmed by the use of one and the same root for both concepts, as English "to turn."

And this is found also in Hebrew. Examples are :

to turn moment/period

1. Hebrew sha'à sha'à (brief time, moment)

2. Italian voltare volta

3. French tourner tour

4. Spanish voltear vuelta

5 Dutch keren keer

6. Russian poworatshiwatj raze

These cultural similarities regard five different roots. Similarities around one of these roots and it meanings we find in the table of this entry, in which the Germanic roots do not have the same message of "to turn".

Note:

Hebrew. A combination "ש ע ה , SH Ayin + accentuated vowel, sha‛à " appears as root in the words of this entry E 0769 (Hebrew 0887), "to turn, happen, moment" and entry E 0788 (Hebrew 0886). "to look, observe". The question rises if there is just one root with strongly divergent messages, as is often thought, or rather two roots that met each other in the idea "to turn and look at what happens".

We have preferred to make two seperate entriess.

Note:

Hebrew. It is important to note that the verb is found in the Biblical texts, but the noun with the same root is registered in Post Biblical and Medieval writings. This does not mean that the noun was not used already in Biblical times.

The meaning "to take place" for the basic verb can be deduced from the composed verb "hishe'à" that means "to suspend, make stop". And also from the expression "sikhakà lo hasha'à" that says "fortune has smiled at him", in which "hasha'à" stands for "that what happens" or in German "was geschieht".

Note:

Proto-Semitic. The root of this entry is found in Aramaic and Syriac "ש ע ת א, sha‛età = short time, moment". Arabic "sā‛ta = short time, hour" and Ethiopian "sā‛ath = hour, time". The Hebrew root probably was used in Proto-Semitic "*ש ע , SH Ayin + accentuated vowel".

Note:

English, with the introduction of many French words or roots after the Norman conquest, has abolished this Germanic root together with many others. Old English "sceon" had two groups of meanings. One was "to happen, take place", as mentioned above. The other group had "to hurry, run, fly". The linguistic contact between "running" and "happening" can be detected in English "to occur" that is a composite verb on the basis of Latin "currere" that says "to run".

It is also found in other words of Germanic languages .

Note:

German. Some scholars think that the meaning "to happen" has developed out of that of "to run", via an intermediate passage " to run > to run fast > to happen suddenly > to happen". The similarity with Hebrew shows us that both meanings were present many thousands of years ago, so that such a development, if it ever has taken place, lies very far back.

Note:

West Germanic, like East Germanic (Gothic) makes a frequent use of "ge-" as a prefix, though modern English has abolished that habit. As can be seen in the examples from this entry, it has a reinforcing or confirming function. This confirming function explains as well the use of "ge-" as a prefix for the shaping of the past participle of verbs in German and Dutch.

Note:

Middle Dutch, different from Old High German, did not use this root to express "to run, hurry", except in the word "schielijk" for "hasty". This is still used in modern Dutch as well.

Note:

North Germanic, last but not least, does not use the prefix "ge-" and pronounces the verbs with initial SH, just like Hebrew.

Note:

Proto-Germanic. From older Germanic languages, besides the abovementioned, we find Old High German "skehan" and "giskehan" and the past tense "skah-, giskah-". Middle Low German had "schēn, geschēn", Old Frisian skiā". One must take into account that in past tenses the vowel " A " was used frequently. It continued into Modern German "geschah". Probably Proto-Germanic had "*SK Ē -", but as well "*SK Ā -" .

Note:

Indo-European. There have been efforts to link the Germanic words of this entry to words in other groups of languages (especially Celtic) with messages like "to move , depart, be ready, run, flee", but the semantic relation is very distant from "to happen, take place". Like so often a solid comparison can be made just between Semitic and Germanic.

Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 30/11/2012 at 12.57.34