Читать книгу Etymology of meanings. Brief etymological dictionary of planetary toponyms. At the origins of civilization - Alexander Tokiy - Страница 13

On maps of the planet, you can often find names that include a combination of one of the derived breath sounds “ga” and “ka” with a soft sound “el’”. It is an amazing combination! On the one hand, It is a hard road, a long way with a hard exhalation in the end; on the other hand, it is something loved, pleasant, desired. “ka-el’”—“pleasant movement”, a desired and even favorite way. This combination became the basis of place names indicating the most convenient ways. Along them, for example, Alexander Dumas moved to the “musketeer” port of Calais, to comfortably move from the dear old France to the no less old and dear England.

The port of Calais is not the only “transshipment” toponym\place name. In the Northern part of Great Britain there is a province Caledonia. A strange name, consisting of four protoroots: “ka”, “el’”, “do”, “no”. If we take it literally, as an ancient ancestor would have done, we get this meaning: “a convenient, favorite and desired way along the bottom.” And that’s right! The fact is that in ancient times, hundreds of thousands of years ago, an island in the North of England broke— and along the mountains, along the rocks, along the forests formed a crack that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea, crossing the entire island. In places, the crack has formed deep Loch Ness, Loch Linne, Loch Lochy, in places it is shallow and even has crossings. At the same time, the Scottish “Loch” is a “lake”, akin to our Russian “ovrag” (ravine). The British call this fault Great Glen themselves, which, in fact, has the same meaning. Only if the more ancient Caledonia literally translates as “a good, convenient way on the bottom”, then Great Glen—“a good, convenient way between the mountains”. And the word “Glen” itself is a corruption of “Calais”.

There is another ancient toponym\place name, which is absolutely related to Caledonia, but in which the combinations of protoroots are rearranged: not “ka-le-dono”, but on the contrary —“dono-ka-le”. This is an ancient place of Dongola, which is located in Sudan on the banks of the Nile River. The bottom line is that Dongola is located between the rapids of the Nile River. This means that we can assume that in ancient times this place was designated as a “convenient river crossing”, as it was geographically.

There are many toponyms\place names with the meaning “convenient and good way” in the world. So much so that your head may spin. This is the Kalka River, and the Kalya River, and the ancient river, of which only one name remains – the Galilee River. This is the Permian Galia, and the famous Rubicon-cut Gallia. These are the Kal`nukha River, the Kal`yok River, the Kaleva River, the Kalets River, the Kaler River, the Kal`mius River, the Kal`chik River, the Kalitva River, the city of Kaluga, the Kal`va River, Golstein district, the Kalaly River, Karmyskaly Pond, Dzhambas-Kala, Enikale (Kerch), the city of Gelsinfors (Helsinki), Kilimanjaro, the city of Calcutta, the city of Ramigala. This is the legendary river named by the Turks – Galis, Dzhalinda, the city of Dzhalal-Abad, all kinds of Dzhalili and the resort Gelendzhik. This is the famous Karelo-Finnish epic “Kalevala”. Here, not only the Israeli Dzhelabun is appropriate, but also the name of the famous count Cagliostro and even the name of ancient coins – sikel and shekel. The warm Gulf Stream also flowed out of this story.

Even the name of the German magazine “Spiegel” has the same roots. “Spiegel” is a mirror – a mirror surface of the frozen river, which was a beautiful road, convenient and easy.

The “toponymic mechanism” of naming has also moved to the names of tribes. For example, what can we say in general about “Celts” or “Gauls”? Protoroots “ka-le” (comfortable or convenient way) and “ti” (to do) in their combination denote nomadic tribes that move where they want and where it is comfortable. “Gauls” is a modified “Ka-le”. The same meaning is given to the word “mongol”, where’ mon " (or ‘man’) is a person, and the second part of the word—‘gol’ is ‘ka-le’. The nomad. In this semantic paradigm, the Karakalpak tribes also moved along the banks of the Syr Darya River, and the ‘friend of the steppes—“kalmyk” found his home. It seems to me that Ivan Kalita might be relevant to the nomads and went where he likes.

It is significant, but the word “ka-le” has its counterpart, even with rearranged roots—“liga” (league). This is a related word, but with a more complete meaning. The “liga” is the “connecting way”, which has received the meaning “connection” over time. Among the toponyms\place names, you can recall the city of Liege. In colloquial speech it is also a kind of association: The League of Nations, UEFA Champions League. In ancient times, the word “liga” had an applied meaning – a tie. For example, in Rome, the famous soldier’s lace-up boot was called “kaliga” (caliga). Hence the name of the Emperor Caligula, whose nickname was “little boot”. To some extent, the meaning of “connection” has also been preserved by the Sanskrit word “yoga”, which helps a person to maintain a connection with nature, with the sky and to penetrate “down” himself.

But the Latin word “religa” means that this connection is cut, dividing and pushing people together to embroil them. Religion and faith are the opposite phenomena. My statement that the word “igo” (yoke) is a corruption of the word “liga” may seem quite fantastic. What is a “igo”? This is a yoke, a rope around the neck of cattle, so the word has two meanings: first, it is a union, and second is a yoke, a tie. The Tatar-Mongol League was an association of various peoples who adopted the rules of kon on the basis of ethics. And only more perfect means of competition could destroy it. For example, the ancient hunting technique of cutting off the young and weak from the herd. It was called the word “religa”, and in Great Rome this strategy was known under the slogan: “Divide and conquer”.

Finally, the ancient combination of “ka-le” is the basis for the name of the greatest lake on the planet, which is our gray-haired Lake Baikal. This should be discussed separately.

Much has been written about the name of Lake Baikal. At the same time, the main mistake of scientists and researchers is that they “traditionally” try to interpret the meaning of ancient toponyms\place names through the languages of those peoples who live there now or lived in recent times. But the naming of localities, the designation of landmarks of ancient man was conducted long before then the language groups were formed and even more so formed.

On the territory of Russia, there are several “baikals”—they are about thirty. For example, in the Chelyabinsk region there is a city with a slightly distorted name – Bakal. In case of small discrepancies, all place names have a common feature. It is hidden in the ancient preposition “po”, meaning the movement “along”. For example, the Povolzh`e is along the Volga River, Poltava is along the Ltava River, Pomerania is along the “more” (along the sea). Sometimes consonant “p” in this preposition sounds like a voiced consonant “b”. For example, the city of Bologoe is along the log, lowlands, a wide ravine, Borodino is along something native, fertile, the city of Bologna is along the “lono”, along the bosom. The first syllable in the word Baykal (Baikal), remembering the mountain protoroot “ay”, conveyed the ancient meaning —“along the mountains”. The toponym\place name is actually very definite, understandable to the ear of ancient man—“po-ay-ka-le”. And it means “a convenient passage through high rocks”. In this sense, I would easily call Baikal and Caledonia related toponyms\place names that mark passages in hard-to-reach places. But if Caledonia is a “passage along the bottom” of a mountain fault, then Baykal is a “passage between mountains”.

Baykal is not the only lake that has in its name the semantic roots of “passage”, “transshipment”, “crossing”. This ancient language bush includes Lake Issyk-Kul’, Lake Alakol’, Kara-Bogaz-Gol and many others. The water surface has always been a convenient passage, so “ka-le”, “kol’”, “gol” and others in different languages have received the meaning of “lake”, “water body”. I can add that the language has a stable combination of the roots “ka-le” and “voda” (water). This is the word “gals” (tack). It is the way on water.

The concept of a convenient way for the ancients has a great importance. The meaning of “ka-le” is preserved in many languages around the world. The Crimean-tatar “kele” in all its variants is related to the tatar “kil” (to come), slang “khilyat’” (to go), “oblomkam” (word’s parts) in Russian: “dokole” (to the something (place, month, time)) or “dokel”. This is also the meaning of the English “goal” and not very pleasant to modern man the word “kal” (feces), which were strewn with the way of migration of animals and which for ancient hunters was a guiding star in search of prey. So my ancestors – the Greeks – kept the familiar greeting in their language. “Kali Mero” now sounds like “good day”, where “Kali” is for “good”, and “mero” is for “day” (from our word “mera” (measure”) is a part of the time, the same root of the word “smert’” (death)). But the original meaning of this greeting-wish had the meaning of “good journey”. And the answer, as the password, was not less kind “Kalu Sirtys”.