🧵Thread of Threads! 🧵 Brief guide to selected previous posts, including weekly posts on Georgian language and culture, the languages of the Caucasus, and occasional posts about my actual research.

This reflects a straightforward functional fact about fruit: they are seen not just for their fleshy outer rind for eating, they are also seen as a source for the seeds that become enveloped in it. Many, many languages around the world lexicalize this fact.

This early Zan form was a result noun *χw-il- meaning wrapped or enveloped. This semantic shift from a verb of growth to 'fruit' is very common across lgs: Ukrainian plyd < PIE *pleh₂- fill Latvian auglis < PIE *h₂ewg- grow Old English wæstm < PIE *h₂weg- grow, enlarge

This helps to explain why Georgian preserves the /v/ in the verbs for wrapping like მოხვევა moxveva directly inherited from Georgian-Zan, but lacks it in the word for ხილი xili: it was borrowed only after the Megrelian or Laz source form lost the /v/.

The answer is that ხილი xili was in fact not the direct inheritance from Georgian-Zan, but instead was a loan from some form of Zan: Megrelian ხილი, ხიი, ხირი xili, xii, xiri Laz ხილა xila Zan regularly loses /v/, while Georgian does not.

ხილი xili has regular cognates in Georgian meaning to wrap around or envelop such as მოხვევა moxveva and შეხვევა šexveva. However, ხილი xili at some point lost its /v/ -- but how?

The word is first attested in a martyrology of Tbilisi's patron Saint Abo dating to 786 in a reference to the Biblical passage about Christ and the olive tree: შენ ველური ეგე ზეთის ხილი მოგიღო ქრისტემან "Christ took this fruit of the wild olive for you"

Weekly Georgian Etymology: ხილი xili 'fruit', from Old Georgian ႾႨႪႨ xili, from Zan xil- fruit, from Georgian-Zan participle *χw-il-, from *χw- envelop, enfold. Like many words for fruit, it comes from verbs of growth or development: cf Latvian auglis fruit < PIE *h₂ewg- grow.

The word is first attested in Davit Chubinashvili's 1840 Georgian-Russian-French trilingual dictionary with the meaning 'brazier, stove':

Weekly Georgian Etymology: მაყალი maq̇ali 'open coal fire, grill', from late Middle Georgian, from colloquial Ottoman Turkish منقل ma(n)qal brazier, from Arabic مِنْقَل minqal brazier, from Proto-Semitic *NQL transfer, move. Originally referred to a portable light/heat source.

This root has regular albeit complicated reflexes in the sister languages: Megrelian დოკირუ doḳiru he tied Laz ოკორუ oḳoru tied Svan კაარი ḳāri wicker basket Where Megrelian shows umlaut (*a > *o > *u > i) while Laz has the regular *a > o shift.

კარავი ḳaravi is formally a deverbal noun with theme suffix -ავ -av that is related to other words of binding, joining, sewing or tying: შეკრავს še-ḳr-av-s bind, tie up შეკრება še-ḳr-eb-a assemble კერვა ḳerva sew Because tents are generally straightforwardly textiles.

Which translates: "Blessed Abraham has blessed you [among] his offspring in the bosom of Christ, who has received you into his tent"

The word is first attested metaphorically to refer to the offspring of the Biblical patriarch Abraham in a martyrology of Tbilisi's patron saint, Saint Abo, dating to 786-790: ნეტარმან აბრაჰამ თჳსთა ნაშობთაგანი შეგიწყნარა წიაღთა თჳსთა ქრისტჱსთჳს, რომელ-იგი კარავსა თჳსსა შეიწყნარა

Weekly Georgian Etymology: კარავი ḳaravi 'tent', from Old Georgian ႩႠႰႠႥႨ ḳaravi, from Proto-Kartvelian *ḳar/ḳr- bind, tie. Possibly an ancient steppe Wanderwort: cf. Indo-European *ḱer- plait, weave, Altaic *kèra- bind, wind, Uralic *kärV- bind, thread.

And here are 10 intellectual domains in which understanding the linguistic form of a claim/hypothesis is crucial to understanding its content:

This attitude is part of a troubling broader trend both inside and outside academia to commodify knowledge and think language learning is mere intellectual window-dressing, when in fact it's a crucial, core part of many practical endeavors. Here's what ChatGPT says about itself:

Horrible news from my colleague and friend Cliff Ando about Chicago. Mind-boggling to imagine Chicago, one of the great universities of the world, giving entirely monoglot and parochial focus to its humanities - and frightening to see them going so defeatist with such resources.

Which translates rich in metaphor: Patman came and heard Avtandil's voice from his plea; / She said: 'The body of this poplar will definitely kill me' / He lay down beside her, gave her a pillow on his rug, / His eyelash shadows provided a sheltering hut for his rose garden.

The word is first attested in Rustaveli's epic, the Knight in the Tiger Skin: ფატმან მივიდა, ავთანდილს ხმა ესმა მისგან ოხისა; / იტყოდა: „მომკლავს უცილოდ ტანი ალვისა, მო-, ხისა!” / გვერდსა დაისვა, ბალიში მისცა მისისა ნოხისა, / დავარდისა ბაღსა უჩრდილობს ჩრდილი წამწამთა ქოხისა

Weekly Georgian Etymology: ქოხი koxi 'cabin, cottage', from Classical Persian كوخ kux hut, from Aramaic כוכי kukkī shack, from Akkadian 𒆠𒅅𒆠𒋙 kikkišum reed fence, ritual hut, from Sumerian 𒄀𒋝 gisigak hut. Replaced ძელური dzeluri log cabin, from Georgian-Zan *ʒʲel- tree/beam.