81
VOCABULARY OF WATER IN CHADIC
Olga STOLBOVA
Moscow
The aim of the paper is to show that words meaning ‘water’ in almost al1
to
Chadic languages go back to one and the same Common Chadic root and
presentChadic gloses for ‘raid, ‘river’,‘boat’and‘fish”withparallels
in
Semitic and Egyptian.
1. ‘WATER’
1.1. OnlyafewChadiclanguagesstillpreservereflexesofthe
Common
Afrasian (CA)’ *ma’-/*may-/*maw-‘water’ (WCh Guruntum mua, Geji mua;
CCh Fali Mucela (Kr) ma%,Gude (Kr) malin). CCh Logone muu ‘dew’ and Fali
Kiriya (Kr) mawa ‘river’ obviously go back to the same root attested in al1 the
branches of Afiasian (Semitic: Akkadian
mu4 Ugaritic my, Hebrew mayiim (pl.),
Arabic mua’, ‘amwaah- (pl.), Sabaic ‘mwh (pl.), Gelez maay, Harari mii, miiy
‘water’;Egyptian my, mw ‘water’;Cushitic:Iraqw ma’ay, Asama’a,Dahalo
ma‘a ‘water’, Bedauye mu ’ ‘liquid’; Common Berbera-ma-n (pl.) ‘water’).
1.2. In a large number of Chadic languages the word for ‘water’ goes back
to
hum, Sura am, Gerka xam, Bolewa ‘amma, Maha
*‘atn/m/a(WCh:Montol
amma, Ngamo hum, Tangale am, Fyer ’aam (coll.), Bokkos hum, Kulere ‘aam;
CCh: Boka (Kr) ama, Hwona (Kr) am, Logone am, Kuseri am, Gulfey am,
Buduma amay, Mbara ‘ a m ; ECh: Dangla ammi, Jegu ’am, Bidiya ’amay (coll.),
a ka-prefix in KeraMigama ’ammi (pl.),Mubi aame. Thesameroothas
Nancere groups (Kwang kaam, Kabalay kaamq Lele kama <- *ka-lama). Our
the
hypothesis is that Chadic *‘am/m/areflectsoldCommonAfrasianpl.of
above-mentioned CA *maI-/*may-/*maw- ‘water’ (note, that the former is plural
in several Chadic languages). Chadic*‘dm/a, as well as Arabic ’amwaah- and
’
Abbreviations
Common
CA
Central
Chadic
CCh
Chadic
East
ECh
Chadic
West
WCh
Kr
llective coll.
Pl.
Masian
Kra&
plural
82
83
u%aqan- ‘beard’); Warj szzkan, Pa’a safin ‘to swallow’-Geji singe (Kr) ‘to
is correct’.
swallow’’ Hausa sunka ‘to put into the mouth more than
The last -iin ambi, abi, etc. may originate from a contraction (*ab-mayi +
‘ab-miyi + ‘ab-mi + ‘ambi, compare Semitic Harare m i i y , m i i ‘water’). So the
*‘ab-may originfor Chadic‘ambiseems quite probable.
2. ‘RAIN’
2.1. Egyptian b”r (Pyramid) ‘Gewaser am Himmel’ is certainly related to
CCh Gidar buuna ‘rain’ and ECh Migama bun ‘rain‘, Dangla bun, Mubi bun
‘sky’, Jegu bon, Bidiya bun ‘sky, G d . CCh Lame bun-or ‘rain’ may be derived
fiom the same root.
2.2. A Proto-Chadic word for ‘rain’ is probably *fuwan (WCh: AngasJioan,
Sura fian, Ankwe fiua, Kir Jioun, Zaar vwan, etc.; CCh Gude (Kr) vana,
Giziga van, v u , Daba van, Musgum fan, ECh: Kera pepen). It can not be
excluded that *fiwan is relatedto *bun (*fu-bun + fu-vun + (Qvun + fwun +
han). The first element of the composita then has the same origin
as WCh Gera
fiu ‘to pour’ and Fyer fi, Bokkos fa-fi ‘rainy season’. Viewing that *bun- is
rather ‘sky‘ than‘rain’,*fu-bun (+ han) shouldbeinterpreted as ‘pouring
pepen seems to resultfromregressive
down fiom sky‘ + ‘rain’.Kera
assimilation of -b- (*N-bVn + pVbVn + pVpVn).Up to now there is no
explanation for WCh GerkaJlten‘rain’.
2.3. Hausa ruwaa ‘water,rain’andZime
ru ‘rain’ are related to Arabic
riwuy- ‘abundant water’ and Hebrewrc ‘moistening’.
2.4. WCh Siri hwii ‘to rain’ and ECh Sibine k a ‘to rain’ may be compared
with Egyptian#W. t (Pyramid) ‘Tain’ and#wy ‘to rain’.
3. ‘RIVER’
A lot of ChadicwordshaveparallelsinEgyptianandSemitic,butno
Common Chadic rootas such can be reconstructed.
3.1. *bVl- ‘river, rivulet’ (WCh: Zul buZZai ‘river’, CCh BudumafiZ ‘river’,
Gulfei belle, Logone f a l i ‘rivulet’; ECh Somray b e l l a l i ‘short rivulet’). An
Egyptian cognate is wbn ‘spring, source (in the oasis)’, also
bnbn ‘to flow’.
3.2. *gur- ‘lake’ (WCh Kirfi guruxo, Gera gurku ‘lake’, Angas k m ‘pool’;
CCh Bacama (Kr) gurey, Fali Mucela (Kr) guru ‘lake’, Gude (Kr) gara, Fali
Jilbu (Kr) g a l i ‘river’) - Egyptian wgr(1ate) ‘Gewasser’.
85
5.4.CCh:Musgu tum 'fish', Mbara tum
Egyptian tm. 'kind
t
of fish'.
'
t
ofish'have
a goodparallel in
5.5. A WCh word *wah'- 'to fish': Tangaleoi, oui '
t
ofish, to catch', Sha mamu-wah'-u-gwashe 'fisherman' corresponds to Egyptian Wh"' (OK) 'fisherman',
wh"' (new) 'to fish'.
The data given inpart 1 prove inOur opinion that we may reconstructa single
Proto-Chadic word for 'water', namely *ma'-, a reflex of a Common Masian
*ma'-/*may-/*maw-. DifferentChadiclanguagespreserveitssingular(1
.l)y
of Chadic *'amma, reflecting
plural(1.2)orprefixed(1.4)form.Thecase
and needs
probably an ancientAfrasianbrokenpluralisofspecialinterest
further investigation.
NumerousEgyptianparallels
to Chadic data (as comparedwith that of
Semitic) account for closer af€iity of these two branches within the Afrasian
family.
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