Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Thomas Wier

@trwier.bsky.social

1.2K followers 690 following 580 posts

Linguist & Caucasologist • Professor at the Free University of Tbilisi • Research languages of the Caucasus, the Tonkawa language • Author of 'Tonkawa Texts' • Weekly Georgian Etymologies Academic research: https://freeuni.academia.edu/ThomasWier

freeuni.academia.edu

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · Nov 13

I just set up a Starter Pack for people doing research or have interest in the languages and linguistics of the Caucasus! If you want to be on it, let me know!

2 13

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

This is not true though. Today the wine industry (including vineyards and the entire wine value chain) employs around 680k-700k people in the US; only around 60k of these are directly in vineyards. Coal at its peak in the 1920s employed around 800k-900k people.

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

In both Greek and Mesopotamian art, the κάλαθος and the 𒄭𒆷𒌅 ḫallatum became metaphors for prosperity, which is the origin of our modern notion of the cornucopia. Here for example is King Ashurbanipal of Assyria holding aloft a basket representing wealth:

2 2

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

In Greek the word is fairly old; it is already attested in the 5th century BCE play 'The Birds' by Aristophanes, but has no agreed upon origin; Beekes suggests it is 'pre-Greek'. A more plausible alternative is Akkadian 𒄭𒆷𒌅 ḫallatum, a kind of basket used to ship goods.

The world's oldest intact basket was found in the Judean desert in Muraba’at Cave, dating to around 10,000 years before present.

1 1

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

The Old Georgian word is in turn a late Byzantine borrowing from Greek κάλαθος, which probably referred to a specific type of basket with 'top hat' and a narrow base. Though few/no wicker originals survive, we see them depicted on ancient Greek pottery for storing wool:

1 1

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

In modern Georgian, most nouns that end in -a truncate in the genitive and instrumental cases:

NOM კაბა ḳaba 'dress'
GEN კაბის ḳabis
INST კაბით ḳabit

Something similar must have happened to კალათა ḳalata, but in reverse.

1 1

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

The modern word in -a represents a reanalysis of the Old Georgian form in -i. This is likely because early speakers heard the unfamiliar word in an inflected form like კალათისა ḳalatisa or კალათთა ḳalatta and interpreted it as truncating: ḳalat-i > ḳalat-isa >> ḳalat-a.

1 1

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

The word is first attested in an 11th century translation of Flavius Josephus' Jewish Antiquities: რამეთუ სჯული იყო იუდელთა მეკარვეობასა შინა ქონებად ითოეული კალათთა ფჳნიკითა და კიტრაჲთა 'For it was the rule amongst Jewish guards to have a basket of dates and cucumbers'

1 1

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 9d

Weekly Georgian Etymology: კალათა ḳalata 'basket', from late Old Georgian ႩႠႪႠႧႨ ḳalati, from Greek κάλαθος basket, probably from Akkadian 𒄭𒆷𒌅 ḫallatum basket for transporting goods, from Sumerian 𒂁𒄬 hal pot, basket.

1 2 12

Thomas Wier @trwier.bsky.social · 14d

For those who want to follow me in a more visual format, I now also make my weekly post about Georgian historical linguistics on Instagram at: www.instagram.com/georgian_ety...

1 2