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30 October, 2011

The Indo-European Fauna: as revealed by linguistics and archaeology, read along Witzels claims about Aryan Homeland
P. Priyadarshi This article is intended to be a source material for further workers. There is no copyright restriction in quoting ideas and passages from this work. [Note: It will be useful to keep the resource link pages given here open for instant verification: Indo-European Etymology Dictionary by Pokorny: http://indo-european.info/pokorny-etymological-dictionary/index.htm Starostin 2007 (Revised Ed of Pokorny 1959): Download and save the full free PDF for future searches. Takes many minutes to download. Page numbers referred below as Starostin are from this book. http://www.scribd.com/doc/68344403/Pokorny-In-Do-European-Dictionary Other editions/ versions of the same, but not used for the present work: http://www.archive.org/details/Indogermanisches-Etymologisches-Woerterbuch http://dc192.4shared.com/doc/0roVo09a/preview.html CDIAL (Turner; A Comparative Dictionary of Indo-Aryan Languages): http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/soas/ Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary (search): http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/mwquery/ Hints: aa=A; ee = capital i; sh = z; retroflex s =S; ng (nasal valar)= G; anusvAra = M etc. Persian Dictionary: (by Steingass) http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/steingass/ Valpi (Latin Etymology Dictionary): http://books.google.co.in/books?id=m2QSAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=etymological+dicti onary+of+latin&hl=en&ei=ku8aTtPfNIfMmAXHjoS1CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum= 1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Douglas Harper, Online English Etymology Dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/ Collins German-English Reverso Dictionary http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/Kuh]

Introduction: Witzels Claims

Mistakes in constructing human history were committed because the philological theories (for Indo-European migration) did not take into account other sciences like biology, ecology, genetics and archaeology, and often so called unexplained features of philological studies. It is because of the lack of knowledge of archaeology and faunal ecology that Witzel thinks that none of the typical South Asian plants or animals is represented in Indo-European vocabulary, even with altered meaning. Hence Oscams Razor saves him (as he claims in his articles, 2001 etc), but the sword of truth falls on all his writings. Similarly, he has always claimed, without substantial evidence, that the animals of Indo-European vocabulary are all from colder climate and have not lived in India (Witzel 2001:54): (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/EJVS-7-3.pdf ) Finally, it must be considered that, generally, the IE plants and animals are those of the temperate climate and include the otter, beaver, wolf, bear, lynx, elk, red deer, hare, hedgehog, mouse; most of them are not found in India and their designations have either been adapted (as is the case with the beaver > mongoose babhru), or they have simply not been used any longer. (emphasis added). Out of this list presented by Witzel otter, wolf, bear, hare, hedgehog and mouse still live in India, and beaver, red deer (Misra:507; Singh:114) and elk (Peregrine:280) bones have been found from archaeological remains of India dating back to 2000 BC to 1200 BC. Lynx too is found in India, although restricted to the Himalayan regions. Thus the list prepared by Witzel is a result of his poor knowledge of archaeological fauna and extant one of India. Further than this, Witzel claims that none of the typically Indian fauna has representation in Indo-European vocabulary, even with altered meaning. Thus he writes (Witzel 2001): One would expect 'emigrant' Indian words such as those for lion (simha), tiger (vyAghra AV+, pRdAku AV+, Ardla MS+, punDarka lex.), elephant (gaja Manu+ ibha RV?, kujara Mbh.+), leopard (dvpin AV+, Ep., citra-ka, etc. lex.), lotus (padma, kamala, punDarka), bamboo (veu), or some local Indian trees (avattha, am, bilva, jambu), even if some of them would have been preserved, not for the original item, but for a similar one (e.g. English [red] squirrel > N. American [gray] squirrel). Instead of Indian words we find, e.g., for simha 'lion' new formations : Iran. er, Grk. ls, Lat. le(n) (cf. Witzel 1999a,b), and similarly, Gr./Latin ones for 'tiger', 'lotus'. (p. 63) We have already examined some of the claims in this paragraph (pipal > poplar; asvattha >aspen etc) in an earlier web article on the Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/64057781/Origin-of-Indo-Europeans-and-Witzel-Examined Another paragraph of Witzel says the same thing: Interestingly, the autochthonous counter-argument relating to tropical plants and animals does not work either. If we suppose a South Asian homeland of PIE, we should be able to indicate at least a few terms that have been exported (north) westwards. This is not the case. Designations for typical Indian plants and animals

that should be found in Indo-European and especially in Iranian, do not even appear in Iran, not to speak of C. Asia or Europe. Words such as those for animals, plants, and trees just do not make it westwards. Nor do we find retained names for newly encountered plants/animals, although at least some of them are actually still found in Iran: the lion the tiger the lotus etc. Other words that have occasionally been used for the autochthonous argument, such as kapi 'monkey', simha 'lion' or ibha 'elephant' are rather dubious cases. (Ibid:53)

As has been underlined several times, the hypothetical emigrants from the subcontinent would have taken with them a host of ''Indian'' words -- as the Gypsies (Roma, Sinti) indeed have done. But, we do not find any typical Old Indian words beyond S. Asia, neither in the closely related in Old Iranian, nor in E. or W. IE, except for the usual words of culture (Wanderworter) such as some recent imports into English (orange, tea/chai, or curry, punch, veranda, bungalow), or the older ones of the type rice, beryl, hemp, etc.143 One would expect 'emigrant' Indian words such as those for lion (simha), tiger (vyaghra AV+, pRdaku AV+, ardla MS+, punDarka lex.),144 elephant (gaja Manu+ ibha RV?, kunjara Mbh.+), leopard (dvpin AV+, Ep., citra-ka, etc. lex.), lotus (padma, kamala, punDarka), bamboo (venu), or some local Indian trees (avattha, am, bilva, jambu), even if some of them would have been preserved, not for the original item, but for a similar one (e.g. English [red] squirrel > N. American [gray] squirrel). Instead of Indian words we find, e.g., for simha 'lion' new formations : Iran. er, Grk. ls, Lat. le(n) (cf. Witzel 1999a,b), and similarly, Gr./Latin ones for 'tiger', 'lotus' In sum, no typical Indian designation for plants or animals made it beyond the Khyber/Bolan passes. The only clear exception would be the birch tree, whose IE name *bhrg'ho- is found all the way from India to Europe: Ved. bhrja KS+, Ir. Pamir dial. furz, Shugni vawzn < *barzn; Osset. boers(oe); Lith. beras, Serbo-Croat. breza; German Birke, Engl. birch, etc. (cf. 12.6, n.113). The other 'European' trees that are found in the northwest of the subcontinent, and beyond up to Russia/Urals, are absent from Sanskrit vocabulary. This situation has been well explained by the assumption of IE linguists that these (p. 61) If one now thinks through the implications of the autochthonous theory again, the ancestors of the Mitanni Indo-Aryans would have left India very early indeed . without any particularly Indian words (lion, tiger, peacock, lotus, lynch pin aNi) all of which would have been 'selectively' forgotten while only typical IA and IE words were remembered. In short, a string of contradictions and improbabilities. Occam's razor applies again. (p. 67) Elst countered many of these objections.1 We will not repeat Elsts arguments. We will go for fresh evidence. There is plenty of the type of direct evidence that Witzel evades, i.e.
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It should be realized that virtually all IE-speaking areas are familiar with the cold climate and its concomitant flora and fauna. Even in hot countries, the mountainous areas provide islands of cold climate, e.g. the foothills of the Himalaya have pine trees rather than palm trees, apples (though these were imported) rather than mangoes. Indians are therefore quite familiar with a range of flora and fauna usually associated with the north, including bears (Sanskrit Rksha, cfr. Greek arktos), otters (udra, Hindi Ud/UdbilAv) and wolves (vRka). Elks and beavers do not live in India, yet the words exist, albeit with a different but related meaning: Rsha means a male antelope, babhru a mongoose. The shift of meaning may

presence in European languages the names of typically Indian plants and animals, although with altered meaning. Witzel is quite knowledgeable about archaeology of Iran, West Asia and Central Asia. Yet he shows ignorance of South Asian archaeology, and ancient presence of beaver, red deer, wolf, hedgehog, elk etc. in India. In fact Kazanas and many other authors have noted concrete examples of dishonesty by Aryan Invasionist Eurocentric linguists. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/81784122/Kazanas-rejoinder-to-Karen-Thomson

Typically Indian Plants as represented in European Languages

It is enough to state here that typical Indian plants have been well represented in the IndoEuropean vocabulary, of course meaning different plants in different languages. To prove this we will just present two examples--the cases of lotus (a flower) and the Indian plum (jamun and rose apple) here.

Sanskrit words for Lotus Flower surviving in European languages

Lotus (1: probably for the sense of edible seeds of lotus): Sk. aravinda; Reconstructed PIE *ereg(h)o- (pea); Gk. (orobos), (erevindos) chickpea; O.H.G. araweiz, arwiz, Ger. Erbse (in name only, means pea; M.Ir. orbaind grains for *arbainn, older arbanna (Pokorny:335; Starostin:902). Sanskrit aravinda (arav+ inda) and indivara (indi+vara, lotus) are two combinations of the same two syllables. Indu means water (CDIAL 1569, 1570, also 1568), and vara is good.

have taken place in either direction: it is perfectly possible that emigrants from India transferred their term for mongoose to the first beavers which they encountered in Russia or other mongoose-free territory. While the commonly-assumed northern location of PIE is at least disputable even on linguisticpaleontological grounds, as just shown, the derivation of its western location on the basis of the famous beech argument is undisputably flawed. The tree name beech/fagus/bhegos exists only in the Italic, Celtic and Germanic languages with that meaning, while in Greek (spoken in a beechless country) its meaning has shifted to a type of oak. More easterly languages do not have this word, and their speakers are not naturally familiar with this tree, which only exists in western and central Europe.: Koenraad Elst, http://voi.org/books/ait/ch33.htm

The Purple coloured Chickpea flowers

Lotus (2: most of the following flowers are purple or blue): Sk kamala; PIE *kemero-, *komero-, *kemero-, Pokorny:558; Starostin:1505). European cognates: O.H.G. hemera (*hamir) [hellebore flower], Ger. dial. hemern ds.; Russian Church Slavonic emer poison originally hellbore; Russ. emer a f. [hellebore] are all cognates to Sk kamala.

Hellbore: Russ. Church Slavonic name emer (cognate of Sanskrit kamala)

Hellbore: Old High German name hemera (cognate of Sanskrit kamala)

Lith. kemerai (Eupatorium cannabinum):

Eupatorium cannabinum flower: Lithuanian name kemerai (from Sk. kamala)

Greek (kamaros), Delphinium.

Delphinium flower: Greek name kamaros (cognate of Indian kamala)

Aconitum flower: Greek , (kammaron)

Aconitum flower: Greek name kammaron (from Sanskrit kamala)

Indian ChamarikA (camarikA) from kamal-ikA:

Sanskrit camarika flower (Bauhinia variegate)

Kamala (Indian Lotus):

Blue Lotus (nila kamala)

Lotus : kamala

Lily: The European flower lily is perhaps a cognate word of Sanskrit nalina meaning lotus:

Lily flower (c.f. Sanskrit nalina)

Conclusion: The cognates of Sanskrit words kamala, aravinda and nalina (all meaning lotus) were thrust on to European plants most of them having blue or purple coloured flowers.

Jambula > apple

jambula > jemelo > emelo > abel > apfel > apple. India Russia West Russia Germany English Rose Apple/jamun, mistletoe/apple, apple The Indian fruit jAmun is recorded to have following names: jambu/jambula/jamboola, Java plum, jamun, jaam/kalojaam, jamblang, jambolan, black plum, Damson plum, Duhat plum, Jambolan plum, or Portuguese plum (see Jambul in Wikipedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambul Turner gave the following list for jamun present in Indo-Aryan languages [CDIAL 5131 (p. 283)]: jamb (Sk.) the rose-apple tree (Eugenia jambolana); Pa. jambu; Pk. jab; S. jamu m.; Lohanda jamu, Punjabi jamm; W.Pah. bhal; jemmu the black plum; Nepali jmu E. ramosissima; Assamese, zm E. jambolana , Bangla jm, jmba, jma, m, Hindi jmun m., Gujarati jm, j bu the fruit, j bu f., m. the tree , j bu dark purple ; M. j b(h) m. E. jambolana and its fruit , Ko. j mba; Si. damba E. jambolana , dan the fruit tree Eugenia or Syzygium caryophyllaea . Thus in India, the word jambu stands for the Syzygium cumini (Eugenia jambolana), the purple coloured jamun fruit or its related species rose apple fruit Syzygium malaccense. In Thai language the word becomes chompoo (rose apple). [for evidence go to the links below]

http://toptropicals.com/catalog/uid/Syzygium_cumini.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambul http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygium_malaccense http://www.flickr.com/photos/mswatty/4643524828/ Rose apple looks almost the same as apple, whereas jAmun looks like European mistletoe (or the blackberry) fruit in shape and size, yet both belong to the same genus (see the links above).

Rose apple (Indian jambu, Thai champoo)

The Malayan Rose Apple

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The Purple-blue Indian Plum jamun

The European Fruit mistletoe which looks like jamun and is called Jmeli, jemelo etc in Slav languages

The last-but-one paragraph of Pokornys stem-topic the following list of IE cognate words meaning apple:

-, abel- (pp. 1-2) gives us

Abg. ablko, jablko, Poln. jabko, Slov. jbolko, Russ. jbloko `Apfel' (*ablko aus *blu-) usw.; Abg. (j)ablan, Sloven. jblan, Aech. jablan, jablon, Russ. jblon`Apfelbaum', Aus idg.*boln- (die Lautform von *ablo `Apfel' beeinflut). These all mean apple (see Starostin: 248-249). Starostin adds (commentary p. 248) similar words, all meaning mistletoe: Russ. omla, Old Russ. imela, Czech omela (dial.), omelo (dial.), jmel, mel (dial.), Slovak jemelo (dial.), hemelo (dial.), imelo, jmelo (dial.), Pol. jemioa, jamioa, imioa (dial.), Upper Sorbian jemjel, Lower Sorbian jemjo, hemjo, .. Slovene jemela (dial.).., Serbo-Croatian mela (dial.), mela, mla, Proto-Balto-Slavic reconstruction: *emel-; Lith. malas, Latv. amuols muols (BW); amuls mals muls, Old Pruss. emelno (EV). We can see that only a few words in the latter list resemble jambula (Sk). The remaining resemble Indian words amla, AmlA (CDIAL 579, 1280) and imlii (CDIAL 1280). It is possible that Lith. malas etc may have derived from Sanskrit AmlA, (and imela from Indian imlii) which resembles mistletoe fruit.

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Indian sour fruit AmlA

Then IE movement proceeds westward, to Germanic and Baltic regions. There we get a drop of initial J, resulting in words like abel etc. Then finally we get the word apple. Thus: jambula (India) > jbloko (Russia) > Ltv. bels > OHG apfel > apple.

However related to the latter meaning is a similar set of IE words that too needs examination: The oldest IE cognate of these words is Luvian: *amlu(wa)- apple-(tree); From the common IE shift m > mb > b derived *amlu(wa)- > Root ubel-, ubl-, abel- . Alb. sa > zero, phonetic mutation Luvian *amlu(wa)- apple-(tree) > Lat. malum -i n. an apple, or other similar fruit; Alb.Gheg moll apple. [Pokorny:1-2, Starostin:247-8]. Thus we can say Latin malum (apple) too evolved from jambula: jambula (Sk) > Luvian *amlu- > Lat. malum. This derivation makes all the summersault and mental gymnastics done by earlier linguists redundant, some claiming Hebrew origins for apple and malum (L. apple) and other proposing European substratal origin, and yet another group focussing on still wilder PIE derivation. These all exercises went wrong because they avoided considering any Indian fruit name like jAmbUla. For example see Section 2.4.8. (Baldi and Page 2006:2209). Link: http://cls.psu.edu/pubs/pubs/LINGUA1158.pdf The Sanskrit word jAmbUla also gave birth to Albanian word kumbull (plum, round fruit) [Starostin:1015]. On the basis of colour alone, Indian jAmun is translated as English plum. Hence jAmbUla > kumbull

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English plum

Indian plum (jamun).

The Indo-European Fauna

Now we shift to todays main issue, the Indo-European fauna. Some arguments and evidence have been presented by me in the same website earlier, q.v. lion, otter, beaver etc. http://www.scribd.com/doc/64057781/Origin-of-Indo-Europeans-and-Witzel-Examined and http://www.scribd.com/doc/60107436/Flora-Fauna-and-Nature-in-Aryan-Urheimat Today, we will examine some more facts and evidence.

No Cognate Words for cow, bukka (goat) etc in most of the Modern European languages
The making of the Indo-European etymology was a big manipulation. It is clear if we visit, for example, any German language or Latin dictionary. The present German language does not have any appropriate PIE-cognate word of cow, bukka (goat), beaver, weasel etc in use. The words for these have often survived in the folk memory as individual names or family names. Thus

1. cow
Kuh German (found in names only). The word, meaning cow, in German usage is rind, derived from PIE word meaning deer. Ger. rind (cow) < (h)rin (deer) OHG [hr n, OE+ roedeer < harina (Sk)= deer [see Starostin: 1714]. This is because the earliest Aryan comers to Germany had lost their zebu cows, and had reached Germany not as pastorals, but mainly as hunter-gatherers. Any wild aurochs seen by them in Europe was considered a deer and hunted. Then these aurochs

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were domesticated when pastoralism came to this region with a subsequent wave of another IE migration. Even after domestication, these aurochs retained the name rind implying game animal. *Rimantiene, Rimute, The first Narva Culture farmers in Lithuania, in Zvelebil, M. (ed) Harvesting the sea, farming the forest: the emergence of Neolithic societies in the Baltic Region, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998, see Conclusion]. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=F2SgUaeUxWEC&pg=PT223&lpg=PT223&dq=The+firs t+Narva+Culture+farmers+in+Lithuania&source=bl&ots=pEdAElZY3J&sig=KnYjAth5wagPzk KNX65nM7SMB_k&hl=en&ei=0RuqTpTmGo3KrAfmo8jRDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=res ult&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20first%20Narva%20Cult ure%20farmers%20in%20Lithuania&f=false

The same happened in the Baltic region. In this region, the Indo-Europeans arrived without pastoralism in the first wave, and spent a hunters life (see Rimantiene 1998, in the link above.) Hence in this region, and many other regions of Europe, the word wich was applied to the wild cows or the aurochs was derived from PIE * keruo-s kruo-s meaning deer. Its other cognates are Latin cervus, Welsh carw, O. Prussian sirwis, Sanskrit sharabha all meaning deer. Cognates of this list meaning cow in Europe are: 1. Lith. k rv , cow 2. Czech karvina, 3. Russian Church Slavonic krava, 4. O. Polish karw 5. Polish krowa 6. O. Prussian curwis For more examples of this group see Pokorny and Starotsin:1715; Pokorny:574-77.Other words for cow in Lithuanian are gilvijas and patel, both entirely unrelated to PIE *gou-. Estonian emane meaning cow is not cognates of any PIE word meaning cow.

2. Goat
German Bock (in name only); Proto-Ger. *bukkA (hypothetical words are denoted by a preceding star). No word for goat exists otherwise in modern German language. buck from bukka, means an antelope. Sk. bukkA (he-goat), barkara etc. Also important is the Old Irish (urIr) name (* ovovind ) meaning pasture, which is in tune with Indian name Govinda. Probably Baka-vinda was the oldest form of the name for one who kept goats. Although the Indians preferred the name govinda in India,

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because they kept cows, the first Europeans were content with the name Bova-vinda (< bokka-vinda) because they kept goats. Compare bukkA (goat) with Proto-Celtic *boukk [cow, Starostin:1346] which is the source for Latin bovis, bos, Italian vacca meaning cow. Sanskrit and Proto-Germanic bukkA (goat) and Proto-Celtic *boukk (cow) must be considered identical, which is so obvious. In fact cow is a large goat in vocabulary of many old civilizations. Clearly first batch of Indians had arrived into Europe with goats and sheep only. Later, after a thousand year when the next wave arrived with cow, cows were labelled goat or ProtoCeltic *boukk . For the same reason, the Old Welsh word buch was thrust on to cow, when this cattle was domesticated in Europe. [see Starostin:1345]

Animals of South Asia

Elst, Gamkrelidze and Ivanov etc have already done some work on Indo-European fauna which we will not repeat here. However, the Indian animals discussed by them may be just mentioned here as: Kapi (monkey): Sk kapi, L. cebus, Gk. kepos, O.E. apa, German affa, OHG affo, O. Czech opice. (for ape see Pokorny:2; for kapi see *keup- to smoke, anger, Pokorny:596-597). Panther: Sanskrit punDariika (tiger), Gk. panther, L. panthera. Ibha (Elephant): Sanskrit ibha (male elephant), Latin ebur (ivory, elephant), Greek el-ephant, Gothic ulbandus. Lion (Sk kesari, keshari): Contrary to Witzels claim (2001:53) that there are no common words for lion in IE languages, Julius Pokorny (1959:520; also Starostin:1426) derived keshar- (Sk. hair, mane) from PIE *kais-. Sanskrit kesarii (also spelt kesharii) means lion (because of mane) and king (because lion is the king of forest). Pokorny provides the following material: Tocharian A ik (lion), Tocharian ecake (lion) and Lat. aesaris hair of the head. From the last, Latin Caesar (Emperor) and German kaisar (king) have been derived. Persian geshu (hair) is a cognate. In light of Pokorny, it may be further surmised that Persian and Kurd sher (lion) is probably derived from Sanskrit keshari by a loss of initial ke. Chinese shi (lion) too may be a loanword. Although Pokorny tries to make a distinction between kais- and kasha, this is not appropriate. Another early IE word for lion was *singhos (Mallory and Adams: 142). However, it has survived only at two places: Arm. inj, ink (leopard) and Sk. simha lion. Starostins PIE database notes Armenian in meaning leopard and Proto-Tocharian *snke (lion), and proposes *simha (Sk. lion) as a PIE word meaning lion. Hence we conclude that lion was known to the early IE speakers by words kesarii and simha or *singhos. See singh lion in the link below (Starostins Database) http://starling.rinet.ru/cgibin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/ie/piet&text_number=1014&root=config Otter: Witzel does not know that some species of otters are found exclusively in India and Southeast Asia (Indian Smooth-coated Otter, Lutrogale perspicillata and Oriental Small-

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clawed Otter, Aonyx cinerea). The word (Sk. udra; Hindi ud) is well represented in modern Indo-Aryan languages (CDIAL 2056). Moreover, cognates of otter or Sanskrit udra often mean animals other than otter in many provinces of Europe e.g. O.H.G. ottar m. water snake, Greek hydra water snake, Old Irish odar brown (in Old Irish otter was given a different name, coin fodorne, i.e. water dog; Pokorny:78-81; Starostin:229-230), indicating that Europe was not the place of origin of nomenclature of otter. Beaver: Witzels oft repeated claim (2001:53,54,55) that beaver was not native of India during the Vedic age is provably wrong by archaeological findings (Misra:507; Singh:114). Oscams Razor falls on Witzel himself here for trying to deny archaeological facts by phony verbal evidence.2 V.N. Misra: Pre-historic human colonization of India, 2001, see page 507. http://www.ias.ac.in/jbiosci/nov2001/491.pdf Upinder Singh: see p. 114: in the link http://books.google.co.in/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=radiocarbo n+Bhimbetka&source=bl&ots=xcdC8SaWjC&sig=z5AKzr9Evfaeaxww29tQc4wkEwE&hl=en &ei=UdtbTaOvFMTJceT78NcK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ6 AEwAw#v=onepage&q=radiocarbon%20Bhimbetka&f=false Thus Vedic India had beaver or babhru. The same Vedic and pre-Vedic Indian term babhru came to be applied to mongoose in India only after the animal became extinct from India in more recent times, and to mice in north Iran after the Avestan period (bibar Persian, mouse, Steingass:154). We may conclude thus that the IE migration had taken off from India before this animal became extinct from India and Iran. When the Indo-Europeans entered Europe, they applied this word babhru to mean many things other than beaver too. In fact the word has retained its original meaning only in English beaver and Lith. bebrus (other word is neris), Czech bobr and Welsh befer. It was present with same meaning in extinct older Germanic languages (O.H.G. bibar, O.E. beofor (oldest bebr), M.L.G. bever, O.Ice. birr ds.). Apart from these the word beaver has survived only as proper names (Ger. Biber, Bibracte, O.Brit. Bibroci, M.Ir. Bibraige, PN Bibar, Gaul. * ebr , Fr. Bivre; ebronn , Fr. Beuvronne, Brevenne etc; Ger. FlN Bever, old Biverna; Polish Biebrza). (Starostin:417-418). In Latin there has been a semantic change and the fiber/ fibra means not only beaver but also soft or extremity of anything (Valpi:152-3). Witzel often cites Neningers claim that mongoose (Hindi newalA), and not beaver, is the real meaning of Vedic babhru. However, this is clearly a wrong guess (vide infra).

Witzel very often invokes the Oscams Razor against his opponenets.

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Purely on linguistic grounds too, the PIE word for beaver *bhebhru could not have been of northern origin. In *bhebhru, we find a reduplication of stem bh, which is not a feature of the northern languages at all. It is a characteristic feature of the southern languages, like Southeast Asian, Austronesian, South Asian (including Indo-Aryan) and African languages (Rubin:2005/2011). Thus the word beaver/ babhru is of Indian origin both on the basis of archaeology as well as on the basis of areal linguistics. [Reduplication of stem is exhibited not only by *bhebhru, but also by a large number of IE faunal members, like karkaTa (cancer), *konkho, dardur (toad), dadru (turtle), etc].

WALS map (Feature 27 by Carl Rubin) showing distribution of reduplication in world. Link http://wals.info/chapter/27; Map: http://wals.info/feature/27A?s=20&z2=3000&z3=2999&z1=2998&tg_format=map&v1=cd00&v2=cf6f&v3=cf ff

O.Ind. (Sk.) babhr -h reddish brown; giant ichneumon kind; Av. bawra-, bawri- beaver; Lat. fiber, fibr beaver (also feber s. WH. I 491; probably i has changed for e, as also) Celt. (only in names): *bibros, *bibrus in Gaul. PN and family names Bibracte, O.Brit. VN Bibroci, M.Ir. VN Bibraige (*bibru- rgion), PN Bibar (*Bibrus) besides *bebros in Gaul. FlN * ebr , Fr. Bi vre ebronn , Beuvronne, Brevenne etc(Starostin:417). Beaver has different names in different languages of Europe:

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Castor (Latin), Kastor (Greek), found only in names. Spanish castor: When the Indians reached South Europe, Sanskrit word kasturi (the musk-deer) was applied to name this animal (beaver); hence: Greek name Kastor (), Latin Castor mean beaver (Starostin:1662). Kinnref (German name) is the only extant German word meaning beaver although used only in names now. A question can be raised as to what was the need for inventing another PIR stem *uer-, uuer- meaning both squirrel and weasel (Starostin:39; Pokorny:)? Balto-Slavic *uuer- and *u uer- *uaiuer- f. squirril, Lith. vaivers (vaivaras, vaivarys), vaivere , vovere squirrel; Ltv. v vere, v veris ds.; O.Pruss. weware ds.; ancient Russ. v veri a, Slov. v verica squirrel, Clr. vyvirka, Cz. veverka, Bulg. ververica ds. (Pokorny:1166; Starostin:3335). These all words exhibit reduplication, and therefore could not have been a northern word. One may wonder why these all words are not cognates of beaver, where only the first v has changed into b. We know that bh, v and b are interchangeable as per the circumstances. Clearly that was the case. And if that is accepted, it becomes obvious that the new-comers to Europe used the same original word *bhebhru or *uuer- to mean squirrel, weasel and beavers. And we are aware that PIE u changes to both v and b. These three animals have many similarities. In fact separation of stem (by Indo-Europeanists) for squirrel, weasel and beavers was required to maintain the homeland status for northern Europe. In German the word for squirrel is Eichhornchen (in names only).

European Confusion of words meaning beaver, weasel, hedgehog and mongoose

Mongoose: Mongoose are small carnivores known by the Sk. words nakula (newalA Hindi; CDIAL 6908; ? naga+la, capturer of cobra)3, kasha (f. kashikA, RV 1.126.6) and ahi-bhuj (snake-eater), ahi-dviS (enemy of snake), ahi-ghna (killer of snakes) etc. Except nakula, all the words meaning mongoose have travelled into Europe, and have been thrust on to other animals having similar size like the hedgehog and weasel (vide infra).

Sanskrit Nakula was wrongly translated by European Sanskritists as weasel or polecat.

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Ichneumon or Mongoose. Below: Mongoose fighting the king cobra

Sanskrit Ahi-dviS (mongoose) was thrust on to hedgehog in Europe. Hence in Greek, Armenian and Phrygian ahi(-dviS) or ahi(-bhuj)= hedgehog (PIE *e hi-, Sk. ahi, snake, Pokorny:292; Starostin:126, 803). Only ahi has survived as eghi (Gk) etc. Its cognates in other European languages are: German and MHG igel, OE igil, igl etc. Arm. ozni hedgehog; Phryg. hedgehog. Pokorny tried to reconstruct the original PIE word for hedgehog as *eghi-no-s (an imaginary word, literally snake-eater).

European Hedgehog The full word ahi-dviS (Sk., mongoose; enemy of snake) has survived in the following IE words meaning hedgehog: O.Saxon egi-thassa, M.L.G. egi-desse, O.E. (corrupted) e e, O.H.G. egi-dehsa, Ger. Eidechse. All these are clearly cognates of Sanskrit ahi-dviS. Although Pokorny mentions this Germanic list, yet avoids citing its Sanskrit ognate ahi-dviS. Here we can discuss another set of words meaning weasel or polecat from PIE *el-, *ol- and (e)l- (red-yellow; Pokorny: 302-4; Starostin:833-4) plus dviS: O.H.G. illi(n)- so, Ger. Il-tis and

19

O.H.G. elle-dso (Ger. dial. elle-deis), N.Ger. Wiesel). [ illi < Proto-Gmc *ella- (red-yellow)].

llek polecat, if from *illi-twso (to Ger.

We note that these words meaning weasel and the just preceding set of words meaning hedgehog contain a terminal segment, twiso, deis etc, which is common to both the groups of words. It is possible that due to red-brown colour, weasels were thrust this name to mean the red-yellow-mongoose. Initially the word might have been *ell-ahi-dviS, which might have got shortened by dropping the middle syllable, to become illi-tis etc.

Hedgehogs cannot be the snake-killer:

Although European philologists thought that even hedgehogs can kill snakes spectacularly, it was just Euro-centricism and ignorance of animal ethology. The fact is that the word for mongoose eghi > ahi-dviS etc were thrust on to the poor hedgehogs when the IndoEuropeans arrived into Europe. One can see (in the linked video below) how intelligently a mongoose kills even the most ferocious snakes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3BfL7X1uU8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=vdg9gkmWsEA It is difficult to conceive that a hedgehog can ever fight and win against a snake. It is more a folk etymological story than truth. At best the hedgehofs can fight a rubber snake as in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ND1KFyPFtw However, hedgehogs can kill small insects and roundworm etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uGnD1SI6dg&feature=related Hedgehogs do have one similarity with mongoose and weasel that it shakes head after holding the prey by the jaws (Immelmann and Beer:268). From Sanskrit kashikA (PIE *kek-) meaning mongoose, have derived the following words meaning weasel in Baltic languages: ekas (O. Lith., weasel), sesks (Ltv. weasel) from Sk kasha, kashikA (f.), PIE *kek- (Pokorny: 543; Starostin:1485).4

However Pokorny (p. 424; Starostin:1211) has also equated Lithuanian ekas (weasel) with Sanskrit jahakA (hedgehog). Thus it is clear that Pokorny was not at all sure whether Lithuanian ekas is from *kek- (Sk. kashikA, mongoose) or PIE * (h)e h- (Sk. jahakA, hedgehog).

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Weasel Weasel could not have been an animal of IE homeland, because it does not have a common name in the different Indo-European languages, and different animals are known by the same word as for weasels in different countries. Apart from the Germanic languages, this stem illi is found in Indo-Aryan languages only, where the cognates mean the domestic cat: billi, illi, laka, lika, rika, li, lia, laa in different IA languages (Turner CDIAL 9237). It is likely that the IE speakers on arrival into North and Central Europe applied this set of words to pole-cat which too had the red-yellow colour.

Polecat (weasel): In German language, Iltis and Stinktier mean the polecat. These words are present as names only. English word skunk is of Amerindian origin. Thus no IE word for polecat as animal exists in English or German today. The very word pole + cat implies that the newcomers knew cat, but did not know the polecat.

Weasel has no common name throughout Europe. M. Fr. (in names only) Bacoule, Belette; Alb. bukl (Starostin:278); Greek (gale-e); Ltv. sesks; O.N. arm n; Lith. armuonys (*gray) weasel etc. German word for weasel is Heimtcker (in name only) and schwafeln. Another word for weasel ferret has no Indo-European cognate.

Absence of Weasel from the Aryan Homeland

PIE *geli-, *gl- meaning: mouse, but also meaning weasel in some modern European languages. Pokorny found that PIE *gelei- originally meant mouse. The Sanskrit word gir -h, girik f. means mouse. However, in the Southern Europe the word means weasel or marten (as in Gk. form galen). Its meaning further changed to Lat. galea originally *crest of the weasel fur. Later meaning changed to a helmet, head-piece, morion, crest of the Guinea fowl, a cap, bonnet, hat; wig etc. (Starostin:1163) It is evident from the discussion by

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Pokorny (tr. Starostin) that *gelei- originally meant mouse an animal originally found only in India, and the weasel was thrust with this name only in South Europe. http://www.scribd.com/doc/55042900/Mice-Migration

Leopard: In spite of Witzels objections (1999:66 pdf) to derivation of pardos from Sanskrit pRdaku, and his claim that it is from a BMAC or Para-Munda substrate language, it remains a valid PIE derivation if we take into account other cognates of the word with altered meaning in many European languages for example, Lith. parudav s foxy. Starostin (database) coins a PIE stem *prd or *perd meaning leopard: PIE *prd- /*perd (leopard); Old Indian pRdaku(tiger or panther), (adj.) pArdaku; Tajik (Iranian) dialect Sogd pwr nk, Pashto prng, N. Pers. palang (panther); Old Greek prdo-s, prdalo-s, prdali-s, Pardel, (Panther). (References: WP II 49 f.). In fact Starostins *perd may be related to Pokornys *sp(h)erd(h)- to rush, running, Slov. prdek, alert, awake, smart; M.H.G. sporte tail (leopard is famous for its long tail) and Sanskrit sprdha- to fight, especially in contests (Pokorny: 995-996).

Jackal has a southern warmer distribution. Cognate words for Sanskrit lopAsha (jackal, fox) and shRgAla (jackal) are well represented in European languages often with altered meaning (to either fox or wolf).

Distribution of Jackal (wiki) Sk. shRgAl (shrigal); Pers. shaghal; Turkish akal; German schakal; Lith. akalas; Latv. aklis; Bulgarian chakal (); Polish szakal; Kurmanci Kurd chacal. Sk lopAsha, PIE *ulp-, lup- (*suilk-), fox, jackal, wolf (Pokorny: 1179; WP I, 316f); Av. urupis dog, raopis fox/jackal; M.Pers. rpAs, Pers. rbAh fox; Arm. alus fox; Lat. volps fox, also lupus (wolf); Bret. louarn fox; Welsh llywarn fox; Polish (*lues) lis fox; Gk. and fox; Lith. l p (*ulop), vilpiys wild cat; Ltv. lapsa fox. Hence Starostin reconstructs a PIE stem *lup- meaning both wolf and fox.

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A sub-set of words from PIE *ulk-os (Pokorny:178-79; WP I, 316f) are similar to Sk. lopAsha and do not have k: Lat. lupus (sabin. Lw.); Goth. wulfs, O.Ice. ulfr, O.E. O.S. wulf, O.H.G. wolf wolf, fem. O.H.G. wulpa, M.H.G. w lpe. Pokorny too noted this fact, and mentioned the following words in this category: Lat. lupus and Gmc. *wulfaz with IE p to O.Ind. lopAajackal, fox; Av. raopi-, M.Pers. ropas; Gaul. PN ; O.Brit. gen. Lovernii, Welsh llywarn, O.Corn. louuern, Bret. louarn fox, IE *louperno-s . (Starostin:3410-11). Thus we conclude that lopAsha (jackal, fox) was originally an Indian word, which was applied indiscriminately to mean fox, jackal or wolf when the IE speakers reached Europe. Wolf bones have been found from about 3000 years old archaeological site from India (Misra:507; Singh: 114). Wolf has a wide distribution from India to Europe. Sanskrit word vRka (wolf) is well represented in almost all of the Indo-European languages. However, the Indian word lopAsha (jackal) when reached Europe was too applied to mean wolf or fox in different European languages. PIE *ulk-os (*kwel- k u(n)) wolf (Pok: 1178-1179; Starosin: 3410-3411). The words with k in this compilation are from Sk. vRka, while those with phoneme lup must be from Sk lopAsha. We can have a look at the material:

1. Words originating from Old Indian (Sk) vRka (a tearer, wolf): Sk. vrkti- to tear, vrkAy - mad, wicked, evil, mordlustig; Av. vhrka- wolf; Gk. ; O.Ice. ylgr; Lith. vilkas; Ltv. vlks, O.Pruss. wilkis, O.C.S. vlk ds.; Alb. ulk, ulku wolf; ligur. MN Ulkos, Illyr. PN Ulcudius, Ulcirus; O.Brit. PN Ulcagnus; O.Ir. PN Olcn, also O.Ir. olc, gen. uilc mad, wicked, evil. These are all northern route languages. Also to note similarities in: Alb. (*ulcagnus) ulkonj she-wolf; O.Brit. PN Ulcagnus; Swedish varghona, varginna, vargbna, she-wolf. It is because of this reason that Starostin (database) constructs another PIE word for these words: *welk-, and adds Tocharian B walkwe wolf to the list. It may be noted that Anatolian (Luv.) walwa/i-, which is a cognate of these, means lion (Mallory and Adams: 138). Cattle: There is enough evidence that cows and bulls were known to the ancestral IndoEuropeans, however they were humped zebu. The humped cattle (zebu) are found in India, Africa, Central Asia, China, Southeast Asia and also Europe. It has been determined after DNA studies that all these zebu cattle are of an exclusive Indian origin, wherever they live today (Chen 2009).

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Very early migrant Indian Cattle in Italy (Native Italian Piemontaise breed); Note the Indian style bell attached to the cows neck http://www.sandiescreekfarm.com/html/origin.htm http://www.piedmontesecattle.com.au/About/Where.htm

Native Hungarian Podolian cow: Proved to be Zebu (Indian) cow by DNA testing (Negrini et al 2006, Differentiation of European cattle by AFLP fingerprinting, Animal Genetics, 38, 6066, p. 64); http://www.ucm.es/info/genetvet/diversity_Bovine_AFLP_fingreprinting.pdf

It was from India, that the domesticated zebu cows were taken to West Asia (see figure below), where their ancient sculpture and sketches are identifiable as Indian cows or Indian bulls.

Indian bullock in Sumerian art (about 6000 years BP)

Phylologically too, European languages rarely use cognate words of cow or go, gauto mean a cow. Instead the European languages use to mean cow those words which in PIE, in Modern European languages as well as in Sanskrit mean not cow, but deer, etc game animal, or goat. Original Indo-European cattle was humped (zebu) is obvious from philological analysis too, which shows that the very word bull comes from presence of a hump, indicating that the first cattle known to the Indo-Europeans were humped: O.E. byle, M.H.G. biule swelling, blister; O.N. beyla hump (Starostin:297); O.S. bulde, bolde, byld hump; O. Ice. boli bull; OE bulluc, bula young bull (Starostin:365); Dan. bulk hump, nodules (Pokorny:98-102, 120-122). Mouse:

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Such statements are made because of a total ignorance of natural sciences. It became clear long back that all the mice, particularly the domestic ones, evolved in India (Tate 1936; Ferris 1982; Auffray 1990; Boursot 1993; Din 1996). Hence there is not the least leave to suggest that mouse is an animal of the temperate climate. The DNA evidence of origin of mice and rats in India have been presented in the article in the link below: http://www.scribd.com/doc/55042900/Mice-Migration

Mice origin and migration out of India (DNA study) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1929145/figure/F1/

Shrew: Shrew is an Indian animal, which migrated with human migrations to other parts of world (Duplantier 2002:156). The list of cognate words shows that this animal was known to the early Indo-Europeans: Latin suncus, sorex, Latv. sussuris, Bulg ssar; Gk. hraks (Mallory and Adams: 142). Other words are: Hindi chuchunder, Sanskrit shalyaka-vata, English shrew. There are no cognate word for shrew in the Germanic languages. Hedgehog: Witzels claim that hedgehogs are not found in India too is false. Hedgehog bones have been found in Indian archaeological samples (Misra:507; Singh:114). The animal was found all over India until a century back, and is found in Gujarat state even today. In Sanskrit, it is called jahakA, which has many cognates in European languages, although the meanings differ. PIE * (h)e h- :Sk. jahakA (hedgehog); Lith. e kas polecat (Pokorny:424). However, at other places, Lith. e kas has been equated with Sanskrit kashikA.

He-Goat (Bukka): In the northern route of IE migration, we get a set of cognates for barkara (Sk. goat): OE bukka; Sanskrit barkara and bukka; Bengali boka; Bihari botu; Hindi bakarA all mean he-goat. The Pavlavi buz (Persian buj, buz) may be related to Sanskrit bukka. Swahili buzi and mbuzi seem to have been derived from Pahlavi word buz, indicating that goat was imported to Africa from Iranian south coast. Butcher is from the same root. In those districts of northern Europe where goat was not found the word adopted the meaning male deer (buck). Bones of many other mammals from this list have been recovered from archaeological excavations in India like red deer, beaver and hedgehog from Kashmir (Misra:507; Singh:114) and elk from Harappa (Peregrine:280). 5 Otter, wolf, bear, hare, lynx and hedgehog still live in South Asia. Indian hedgehog (Paraechinus micropus) is a species

These are just examples. This is not an exautive list.

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restricted exclusively to India, and is particularly known to the scientists because of the important role Indian Hedgehog (IHH) Protein plays in the humans. Cancer, conch, frog, toad, turtle, chameleon, lizard and serpent : Witzel completely ignores the presence of these animals in IE languages, two of which are mainly marine (cancer, conch), and the rest are cold blooded hence primarily residents of tropical regions. Frog, toad, turtle, chameleon, lizard and serpent are cold blooded and need warmer climate. The Indo-European words for these have been preserved in the southern route languages mainly: Cancer: PIE *kar-3, reduplicated to karkar- (Pokorny: 531-532). Reduplication of stem itself suggests the Indian origin of the words. Latin cancer (crab); Greek karkinos (crab); Persian kark (crab); Hindi kenkarA (crab); Sanskrit karkaTa, karka (crab).

Spider crab (a true crab) The northern route languages while passing through the relatively drier crab-less region of the steppe, thrust this word to spiders.

Hermit crab Thus we have: M.H.G. Ger. dial. kanker spider, Finn. (from dem Gmc.) kangas web, webbing, strong cloth or fabric, net-like weave, Swe. dial. kang droopy slender branch, kAng (esp. from horses) agile, lively, excited, aroused (actually spinning violently), kynge bundle, O.N. kongull bundle of berries; maybe Alb. kungull pumpkin (Starostin 1018; Pokorny 380).

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Crab spider

Crab Spider

Russian White Crab Spider The people who finally reached Europe and northern Caspian regions, and encountered crab again, invented another set of words to mean this animal: crab: E. crab, OE crabba, Du. krab, OHG krebiz, German krabbe, from PIE *gerbh- (to scratch, carve). Marine mollusc conch: we have: English conch (loanword from Latin), Latin concha, Greek konkhe, Persian khum-(muhra), Sanskrit shankha, PIE *konkho (Pokorny:614). The word was lost from northern route languages like Balto-Slavic and Germanic. It was retained in Old Indian to Latin (south-south) because that was a coastal route of migration from India to South Europe. Frogs, toads, chameleon, lizards and turtles: These being cold blooded, typically belong to warmer regions of the world. These have typical Indo-European names. For example: Toad (E.), tadige, tadie (OE); taduri, dardarika, dardura, dAdura (Sanskrit). Frog (E.), frude, froud (Middle English) from fraudr (O.N.); plava, frog, udra water. Chamaeleon (L.), khamaileon (Gk), hemala (Sk); Lizard (E.), Latin lacertus, saraTu (Sk.). Similarly dadru, druDi, duli, Duli, dulI, dauleya and druni (Sk), turtle (E.), tortue (Fr.), turtur (L.); also tortuse (OE) and tortuca (M. Latin).

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Similarly Sanskrit sarpa, Latin serpentum, Alb. gjarpn and Greek herpenton (after which the disease herpes) can be easily considered related together (Pokorny:912), all having southern route connection, but these cannot in any way be linked to English snake or German schenake, words which were only later invented after reaching north Europe.

ang(h)i- (*eghi-, oghi- and e hi-) English meaning: snake, worm, *fish (*hedgehog = snake eater) Deutsche bersetzung: schlange, Wurm Note: eghi-, oghi- and e hi- ds.; at least two etymological different, but early the crossed kinship whose relations still are often unclear. Note: Root ang(h)i- : snake, worm, * sh derived from an extended Root an h(*hen h-): narrow, *press Material: Lat. anguis = Lith. ang s (f.), O.Pruss. angis serpent, snake (Ltv. odze f. snake ), O.C.S. *o , Russ. u , Pol. w snake , Arm. auj (gen. -i) snake (Meillet Esquisse 154, Dumzil BAL.-SLAV. 39, 100); (p. 124) Gk. m. (f.) snake, ds. (for *, Specht Decl. 377), O.H.G. egala leech, bloodsucking worm , Dan. Nor. igle a parasite sheet worm in the viscera of the animals and in the skin and the branchia of the fish . (126)

Indo-European Birds PapihA (CDIAL 8204; Old Awadhi borrowed into Hindi; an Indian bird, Brain-fever Bird; Hierococcyx varius; or Cuculus melanolencos): Sk pippakA (also pippiika), PIE PIE *pp(p)(Pokorny:830). The name of this Indian bird was applied almost randomly to different birds in Europe like Latin ppil, Gk. f. or m. young bird, , f. a kind of woodpecker Pipus, Sloven. ppa chicken, Alb. bib young water-fowl, etc. It has survived in Europe in many verb forms. German piepen, pip(p)it re, ppulum (to whimper), Osc. pipatio clamor plorantis, Lith. pyp whistle, Cz. pipt piepsen, Serb. pi, a disease (malady the H hner), Arm. bibem a feeble chirp of a baby bird, Gk. , a bird. (Pokorny: 830). Pika (Sk. Indian cuckoo): The stem was used to mean many different birds in Europe almost randomly. English Pie (old name of magpie, a bird of crow family), Latin pica (magpie, f. of picus), Latin picus (woodpecker), Umbrian pieca, German name Specht (woodpecker). (see Pokorny: 999 & Harper). Tittir (a bird): Sk. tittira (partridge); In Europe, its cognates are used to mean a wide variety of birds: PIE *teter; M.Ir. tethra hooded-crow; Germanic thidurr capercaillie, OCS tetrevi pheasant, Lith. teterva capercaillie, Rus teterev capercaillie, Iranian tadharv pheasant; Gk. tetraon capercaille. Shuka (Sk. parrot): Phylology tells us that parrot was known to the early Indo-Europeans. However, when the IE speakers reached Europe, the word shuka was applied

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indiscriminately to mean any bird in Europe. Arm. sag goose, O.C.S. sova owl, Celt. cavannus, Lith. auki , a k cry, loud call, shout, cry, name, Russ. sy Zwergeule, Sperlingseule, Cz. s owl (Pokorny: 535-536; Starostin: 1475). Camel (uSTra) and Ostrich: Sankrit uSTra, Persian ustur (Steinegass:63), shutur and us all meaning camel. Persian ushtv and ishtv are derived words meaning haste, despatch. Camels very ancient presence in India calls for a word for camel in India since pre-historic days. Ostrich and its Cognates and other related words

In most of the languages, camel and ostrich have been denoted by a primary word for camel, and a phrase added meaning bird like to mean ostrich. Examples are: Tamil oTTaka-paTci (meaning the camel-bird; oTTai and oTTakam are Tamil words for camel); Farsi ustur murgh and shutur murgh, Turkish devekusu (deve= camel, kushu= bird; hence bird like a camel). The word for ostrich in India may have been ushtra mriga (uSTra mRga) meaning the bird like a camel, which is surviving today in Farsi as ustur murgh. There is ample archaeological evidence that ostriches lived in India, however they became extinct following LGM. When Indo-Europeans came out of India, they lost the meaning camel beyond Iran. Yet the word ushtra was retained as ostrich and its other cognates, often meaning any large bird. Thus we can say that cognates of ushtra or ushtraka (Sk., camel, buffalo) are: ostrich (E.), stork (E., a large north European bird) 6, Hungarian struck (ostrich), Basque ostruka (ostrich), Farsi ustur and shutur (camel), Spanish (avi)-struz (ostrich), Russian straoos (a reverse of oos-stra, uSTra), OE austridge, Old French ostruce, Late Latin struthio, Greek strouthio-kamilos (ostrich which looks like a camel).

Archeology and geology tell us that central and western India became a desert ecosystem for quite a long period, between 35,000 ybp and 20,000 ybp (Petraglia, 2009). Desert is the home of both, a camel and an ostrich. Ostrich beads and eggshells have been found from Batadombalena (Sri Lanka) and Patne (Maharashtra, India) dating back to 28,500 and 25,000 ybp respectively (Deraniyagala; Sali). A late Upper Paleolithic burial at Bhimbetka contains two ostrich-eggshell beads found near the neck of the man (Bednarik). The discovery of ostrich egg shells at over 40 sites in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, several of them dated by 14C, shows that ostrich, a bird adapted to arid climate, was widely distributed in India in prehistoric periods (Kumar). Hence Indians of those days must have had words for ostrich, and that word must have been after camel as is the case in Iran and other civilizations. In Latin word stru-thio, stru is from Sanskrit uSTra and thio may be from Hungarian teve meaning camel. Thus stru-thio is camel-camel, and Greek stru-thio-kamilos is camel-camelcamel (Sk. + proto-Uralic + Semitic). In this case, as the word traveled, it went on gathering up words having same meaning.

A large bird of Europe, might have been thrust this name because of its gross resemblance with ostrich, in a country where ostrich is not found.

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Hence we conclude that the earliest Indo-Europeans had words for ostrich and camel, which were lost from IE languages outside India and Iran. However vestiges of those words were thrust on to some large birds in Europe. Arthropods Mosquitoes and Flies: Witzel claims that none of the typical Indian animal species are represented in the PIE vocabulary (ibid: 54). To a biologist, mosquitoes and flies are the most typical animal species of India. These two species are well represented in the southern European languages, however only mosquitoes or biting insects are represent in the northern languages of Europe. [Sanskrit: mashaka, mAcikA, makSa, makSikA house fly; mashaka, masha mosquito; Greek: (muia) house fly; Latin: musca house fly; Albanian: mize gnat; Persian: makh7 wasp, bee (Steingass: 1191); mausa, mUsa bee (Steingass:1345); German: mcke mosquito; PIE *mako-, *mok-o- fly (Pokorny:699).] It may be said with certainty that this Indo-European word musca (domestic fly) must be from a humid tropical region. At least flies are not famous for being inhabitants of northern colder regions. Spider: Sk markaTa, markaka, mUSikA, mAkSiika (MWD). In modern Indian languages: makara etc (CDIAL 9883). There is a PIE root *mezg-2 (to bind, attach; Pokorny 746; Starostin: 2108) which may be the semantic relics of Indian markaka (spider) in European languages. Source material words for derivatives of *mezg-2 are: Russ. mzgar spider; O.H.G. O.S. ms a, O.E. max, m s r, Masche (in surname), O.Ice. moskvi ds., Lith. mezg , mgs ( tie, bind, knot, knit), mzgas; Ltv. mazgs knot, Lith. mazg Iter. knit, makst flax, wattle, braid, Ltv. meg t, mig t dislocate, luxate, crick, meg t ranken. (Pokorny: 746; Starostin: 2108). Louse: Only animal species which is certainly commoner in the colder regions is louse. Witzel has preferred to omit it. However DNA technology has proved that louse is an ectoparasite of man since the days of first evolution of man. It originated in Africa, and it migrated exclusively with human migration (Kittler). Hence the direction of lice migration must be the same as that of human migration, which in the present context would be the R1a1a (M17) y-chromosomal DNA haplogroup migration as delineated by Underhill (2009) from northwest India to Europe through Central Asia. Cognates of louse are: erec (louse, PIE), E-rkQ (Bangani, Garhwali, louse, flea), uris (Bihari, bed-bug), likSA, likSa, likkA and nikSa (Sanskrit), likh and nikh (Hindi), louse (E), lice (E, pleural), ls (Old E.), lous (Middle English), luis (Dutch), ls (Old High German), ls (Icelandic), lus (Swedish, Danish), llau (Welsh), lous (Proto-Celtic), risk (egg of louse, Kurmanci) and nutik (young of louse, Kurmanci Kurd), and *ls (PIE, Pokorny:692 and 335). In Persian guhn (from Sanskrit ghuNa) has survived (Steingass, 1108). Southern European languages do not have cognates for louse. Examples are: Pedis (Latin), piojo (Spanish), pseira (, Greek). Among the northern languages, not all have cognates
7

Persian makh has retained many of the semantic features of flies and mosquitoes. Its meanings bee and wasp have retained the feature biting characteristic of mosquitoes. However other meanings like sticking, annihilated, reduced to nothing are features of a house fly. The last two have been well expressed in William Blakes poem The Fly (Am I not a fly like thee?).

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for louse, e.g. Lith. utele seems to be a retained older substratal word. Loss of cognates for lus or louse occurred from Italic languages because the migration took place along a warmer route, where lice infestation would be much less common, and the word lus was probably lost out from currency during the transit through Iran and West Asia. Absence of lus from Albanian, Greek and Italic languages rules out Anatolia as the home of Proto-Indo-European. Greek has retained the meaning to wash someone for possibly related lovo (, ). Abbreviations: CDIAL ; E. English; Gk. Greek; IAR Indian Archaeological Review; L. Latin; Lithu. Lthuanian OE Old English; ON Old Norse; Sp. Spanish. Dictionaries Consulted: WALS Kolbe, F.W., An English-Herero dictionary with an introduction to the study of Herero and Bantu in General, JC Juta, Cape Town, 1883, p. 122. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00072642/00001 Thai Dictionary: http://www.thai-language.com/dict Chinese: http://www.mandarintools.com/cgi-bin/wordlook.pl http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/scripts/wordsearch.php?level=0 English: http://www.etymonline.com/ References: Auffray, J. C. et al, 1990, The house mouse progression in Eurasia: a palaeontological and archaeozoological approach, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 41: 1325. Austin, Daniel F.; Water Spinach (Ipomoea aquatica, Convolvulaceae): A food gone wild, in Ethnobotany Research & Applications, 2007, 5:123-146. p. 130. Balaresque, 2010, A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages, PLoS Biol 8(1): e1000285. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000285 Baldi, P. and Page, B.R., 2006, Review Europa Vasconica-Europa Semitica, Trends in Linguistics, studies and monographs, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, 116:2183-2220. Boursot, P. et al, Evolution of House Mice, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1993, 24:119-152. Chen, S. et al; Zebu cattle are an exclusive legacy of the South Asian Neolithic, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Sept 21, 2009, 0:msp213v1-msp213. (accepted manuscript). Chunxiang Li et al, Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age, BMC Biology 2010, 8:15doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-15. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/15

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Crystal, David; The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Cambridge University Press, 1987, 1992 (reprint), Din, W. et al, 1996, Origin and radiation of the house mouse: clues from nuclear genes, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 9(5):519-539. Duplantier, J-M. et al 2002, Evidence for a mitochondrial lineage originating from the Arabian peninsula in the Madagascar house mouse (Mus musculus) Heredity 89 (154-158). Ferris, S. D. et al, Mitochondrial DNA evolution in mice, Genetics 1983, 105(3):681-721. Gamqrelize, T. and Ivanov, V.V., 1995, Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans. A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and a Proto-Culture, vol 2; M. de Gruyter. Immelmann, K. and Beer, C., ADictionary of Ethology, Harward Univ. Press, 1989. Indian Archaeology Review (IAR), Burzahom 19601961, p. 11; 19611962, pp 1721; 1962 1963, pp 910; 19641965, p. 13; 19651966, p. 19; 19681969, p. 10; 19711972, p. 24; Kaw 1989) and Gufkral (IAR 19811982, pp 1925). quoted by Misra. Kazanas, Nicholas 2009b, Indo-Aryan Origins and Other Vedic Issues, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi. Kazanas, Nicholas, 2009a, Coherence and Preservation in Sanskrit in Kumar, S. (Ed.), Samskrit, Samskriti and Samskara, Vidyanidhi Prakashan, Delhi, (108-184). Keyser, C. et al 2009, Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of South Siberian Kurgan people, Hum Genet 126:395-410. Lehmann, W.P., Hewitt, H.J., Feist, S., 1986, A Goethic Etymology Dictionary, Brill. MacKenzie, M.A., 1998, Androgynous Objects: string bags and gender in Central New Guinea, Routledge. Mallory, J.P. and Adams, D.Q., The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European world, OUP, 2006. Misra, V.N., 2001, Pre-historic human colonization of India, J Biosc, 26(4) supplement: 491532. Nenninger, Claudius, 1993, Wie kommt die Pharaonsratte zu den vedischen Gottern? Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 18, 161168. Oppenheimer, Stephen, 2010, Comment on Farming and Language in Island Southeast Asia, Current Anthropology, 51(2):243-4.

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Peregrine, P.N. and Ember, M., 2002, Encyclopedia of Prehistory: South and Southwest Asia, Vol 8, Human Relations Area Files Inc. Rainer, Vossen, Die Khoe-Sprachen. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der Sprachgeschichte Afrikas. // Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung/Research in Khoisan studies. Bd. 12., Rdiger Kppe Verlag, Kln, 1997. Renfrew, C., 1987, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, Jonathan Cape, London. Richter, G.C., Tocharian A Maitreyasamiti Nataka with Addendum: Proto-Indo-European roots represented in Tocharian Gloss and Grammatical Analysis, Trueman State University. Carl Rubino, World Atlas of Language Structure, Feature 27 ShiZhu Gao et al, Mitochondrial DNA analysis of human remains from the Yuansha site in Xinjiang, China, Science in China Series C: Life Sciences 2008, 51(3):205-213. http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=m5610x83965r275n&size=largest Singh, Upinder, 2008, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th century, Pearson Education India, p. 114. Steingass, F.J., 1892, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, Routledge and K. Paul, London. Tate, G. H. H., Some Muridae of the Indo-Australian Region, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 1936, 72(6): 501-728 Tewari, Rakesh et al 2008, Early Farming at Lahuradewa, Pragdhara 18:347-373. Valpy, F.E.J., 1828, An Etymological Dictionary of the Latin Language, Baldwin and Co., London. Rubino, Carl, Reduplication (Feature 27), Haspelmath, Martin (Ed.), World Atlas of Language Structure, OUP, 2005. http://wals.info/feature/27A?tg_format=map&v1=cd00&v2=cf6f&v3=cfff , discussion on http://wals.info/chapter/27 WALS WALS Online is a joint effort of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Max Planck Digital Library. It is a separate publication, edited by Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, 2011) ISBN: 978-3-9813099-1-1. The main programmer is Robert Forkel. Witzel, 2001, Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts. Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 7-3 (EJVS) 2001(1-115). Page numbers used are from PDF version available on the net as http:www.
citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.118...

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http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/EJVS-7-3.htm Zsuzsanna Guba et al, 2011, HVS-I polymorphism screening of ancient human mitochondrial DNA provides evidence for N9a discontinuity and East Asian haplogroups in the Neolithic Hungary, Journal of Human Genetics, advance online publication, 15 Sept, 2011, doi: 10.1038/jhg.2011.103.