Words like Conch: Do they come from PIE?

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Conch & Gr. Konkhos, is it PIE?

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Conch

NOUN:

Inflected forms: pl. conchs (kngks) or conch·es (knchz)

1. Any of various tropical marine gastropod mollusks, especially of

the genera Strombus and Cassis, having large, often brightly colored

spiral shells and edible flesh. 2. The shell of one of these

gastropod mollusks, used as an ornament, in making cameos, or as a

horn. 3. Anatomy See concha (sense 1).

 

ETYMOLOGY:

Middle English conche, from Old French, from Latin concha, mussel,

from Greek konkh. [From American Heritage dictionary].

 

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Does the root for European words like Conch spread only

from Greek? If true, is it possible that Greece got the word for

Conch from India?

 

India exported the spiral sacred chanks even in Mesopotamian times.

In Dravidian culture and literature, conch shells are used as

trumpet horns, as well as bangles. (Ref. 2000 years old Sangam tamil

texts). Conches are blown at weddings and funerals to ward off

evil spirits etc., There was an important tamil caste who

were known as kIran 'shell cutters'. Among Telugus and Kannadigas

a major caste is Balijas (cognate with tamil vaLaiyar, 'bangle

folk').

 

Words for Shells in Tamil and Sanskrit

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1) The root for english word 'Cowrie':

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Tamil word is kOTu 'bent, horn, mountain top' etc.,

T. Burrow derives Sanskrit kapaTa 'crooked, cunning'

from dravidian kOTu. kOTu/kuvaTu > kavaTu > kapaTa.

(kOTu/kuvaTu, compare URu/uvaRu 'spring water').

 

In Tamil, kavaTi (pronounced as kavaDi) = cowry shell.

-D- or -L- > -r- are common: kavaDi/kavari > (English) cowrie.

 

Tamil kOTu, pronounced as kODu,

with k- > c- cOLi/cONi/cO_li = cowrie

 

Note that kOTu = 'conch'

as in kOTTunURu = 'conch lime'.

 

2) vaLai 'bangle made of shells'

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The most important jewelry in sangam tamil texts

is conch shell bangle, widows removed it upon

the husband's death. It is vaLai in tamil, baLe

in Kannada, and balija is a major caste of bangle

producers. Like kOTu/kavaTi, vaLai also means 'to bend',

'curve' etc.

 

3) caGku 'conch' in Tamil

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In classical Tamil, koGku = 'curve, bend, hill'. Mountanous

region of Tamil Nadu state in India is called KoGku country

in ancient literature, The Goa region is called KoGkANam

in Aryan and Dravidian languages. South India and Ceylon

are the native region for sacred chank shells, they grow

upto 10-12 inches. In fact, Krishna blowing conch shell

to signal the start of the Mahabharata epic war is enshrined

in that pose in Tiru-alli-kEni temple in Madras. Poems

describing Krishna, the conch blower, date back to at least

Pallava period (15 centuries). In Tamil, caGku 'conch' < koGku.

k-/c- alterations are common in Dravidian (eg., kivi (kannada),

cevi (tamil) = 'ear'), so also is [C]o- > [C]a- (Eg., nontA > nantA

in nontAviLakku, potini > pa_lani 'an important hill with a

Skanda-Murukan temple', etc.)

 

zaGkha = a shell , (esp.) the conch-shell (used for making libations

of water or as an ornament for the arms or for the temples of an

elephant ; a conch-shell perforated at one end is also used as a wind

instrument or horn ; in the battles of epic poetry , each hero being

represented as provided with a conch-shell which serves as his horn

or trumpet and of ten has a name (Sanskrit Lexicon).

In the Veda, zaGkha 'conch' is not attested in the earliest

work (Rgveda), but only in the later Atharvaveda. Possibly,

drav. koGku > skt. zaGkha. koGku as conch is found in tamil

words like kokkarai 'shell'. (Cf. kokku(tamil)/koGka(telugu)

and kaGka (sanskrit) 'heron'. dravidian etym. dictionary(DED) entry).

Also, refer Prof. M. Witzel, Substrates in old Indo-Aryan, Electronic

Jl. of Vedic studies (EJVS), Harvard university, 1999 for

non-IE k- to z- examples such as karkoTa/zarkoTa, kambu/zambu,

kimIda/zimIda ...

(Note 1).

 

 

In Greek mythology, Triton, the merman sea monster, blows

conch trumpets to calm down the stormy seas, or in the battle

between gods and giants. Triton is closely associated with

Perseus-Gorgon myth. A. David Napier's works 1) Greek Art

and Greek Anthropology: Orienting the Perseus-Gorgon myth,

p. 77-112, in Foreign Bodies, 1996 Univ. California press

and 2) Ch.4: Perseus and the Gorgon Head; Ch.5 The Third Eye,

in Masks, transformation and paradox (1986) delineate

the influences from India & Iran in these Iron age Greek myths.

Particularly with the Third eye of Shiva, The tilaka 'forehead

mark' of Hindus, etc., are shown as part of the Orientalizing

revolution. If so, is Conch-blowing by Triton in these myths

also a part of Oriental influence?

 

Is konkhos (Greek) a PIE word? If so, what are the cognates

of it in other IE language families of Europe? Or is it

a loan from India (koGku/caGku (tamil) > zaGkhu in sanskrit)?

Compare also: oryza 'rice' (Greek) ultimately related with

arici (tamil).

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

 

 

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

 

Note 1:

M. Witzel's words 1999, substrates in OIA:

This is the opportune moment to briefly discuss another

northwestern peculiarity, the interchange of k/z in Vedic. This has

occasionally been observed, even one hundred years ago in the case of

karkoTa/zarkoTa, but it has not been put into proper relief (Kuiper

1991: 41, 42, 44 as Proto-Munda, cf. KEWA III 309, Witzel 1999). The

interchange of k and z is not related at all to the well-known Indo-

Ir. development of IE *k' > Ved. z, as the present variation occurs

only in 'foreign' words.

The name of the snake demon zarkoTa (AV) appears also as

karkoTa(-ka) RVKh 2.14.8, and locally especially in Kashmir and

Nepal; cf. Bur. hergin (Berger hargi'n) 'dragon' or rather gha'rqa

(Berger gha'rqas: CDIAL 3418?) 'lizard', Skt. karkaTa 'crab',

Mundari kaRkom etc. (Pinnow 1959: 341 $483d). The prefix zar-/kar-

can be connected with [s@r...] of the '300 foreign words' (Kuiper

1991: 40-1, 1948: 121), for example in sRbinda (Kuiper 1939 = 1997:

3 sqq.), ku-sur(u)-binda, bainda (Bind tribe), post-Vedic vindh-ya.

Further materials include kambala/zambara 'blanket/name of a

demon', kabara/zabara, kIsta/zISTa 8.53.4 (with var. lect. zIST-,

zIrST-, zIrSTr-, see above), kimIdin/zimidA- 'demon/a demoness',

kambu/zambu 'shell' (Kuiper 1955: 182), cf. KU-zAmba, Kau-

zAmba 'name of a person', cf. ki-zora 'filly' AV, 'youth' CDIAL

3190 : zi-zu 'baby', zi(M)-zu-mAra 'Gangetic dolphin',

zizUla 'dolphin' RV (EWA II 641-2; Le'vy, in Bagchi 1929: 121 sqq.),

kirAta/cilAda 'a mountain tribe', kiknasa 'ground grain' AB:

cikkasa 'barley meal' lex., Bur. Son ~ Ved. kANa 'blind' RV.

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