Masarykova Univerzita Filozofická Fakulta Ústav
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Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Ústav jazykovědy a baltistiky Magisterská diplomová práce 2019 Ekaterina Smirnova Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of Linguistics and Baltic Studies General Linguistics Bc. Ekaterina Smirnova The Etymological Characteristics of Basic Food Names in English, Russian, Czech and Norwegian Master’s Diploma Thesis 2019 I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this work and that I have used only the sources listed in the bibliography. Brno 30.11.2019 3 I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Pavla Valčáková, CSc., for her assistance and guidance with my work. I would also like to thank my family for endless love and incredible support all the way from Murmansk. 4 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 8 RUSSENORSK 14 FOOD 20 Language and etymology 22 I Russian 22 II Czech 26 III English 28 IV Norwegian 30 CEREALS 32 CEREAL FOODS (PORRIDGE) 33 Language and Etymology 34 I, II Russian, Czech 34 III English 35 IV Norwegian 36 SPELT 40 Language and etymology 41 I Russian 41 II Czech 42 III English 42 IV Norwegian 42 PANICUM / MILLET 44 Language and etymology 45 I Russian 45 II Czech 45 III English 46 IV Norwegian 47 BREAD 50 Language and etymology 51 I, II Russian and Czech 51 III, IV English and Norwegian 52 VEGETABLES 55 Language and etymology 55 5 I Russian 55 II Czech 56 III English 56 IV Norwegian 57 RADISH 59 Language and etymology 60 I Russian 60 II Czech 61 III English 61 IV Norwegian 62 ONION 63 Language and etymology 63 I Russian 63 II Czech 65 III English 65 IV Norwegian 67 CARROT 68 Language and etymology. 70 I, II Russian and Czech 70 III English 71 IV Norwegian 72 FISH 74 Language and Etymology 75 I, II Russian and Czech 75 III, IV English and Norwegian 75 ZANDER 78 Language and etymology 79 I Russian 79 II Czech 79 III English 79 IV Norwegian 80 STURGEON 82 Language and etymology 83 I, II Russian and Czech 83 III English 83 IV Norwegian 84 SALMON 85 6 Language and etymology 86 I, II Russian and Czech 86 III English 87 IV Norwegian 88 CONCLUSION 89 LANGUAGE ABBREVIATIONS 91 SOURCES 93 IMAGE SOURCES 98 RESUME 100 7 INTRODUCTION “Food is our common ground. It creates communities, a universal language and experience.” James Beard The term ‘food ’ is a collective designation of all dishes, prepared by a human for eating, everything that is edible. The majority of Indo-European languages use this term with the root that has the same or similar meaning: ‘feed’, ‘bait’, ‘meal’. The notion of the food may be absolutely different for representatives of different nations. This can be explained by the fact that these nations live in different geographical areas and they do not share the same tastes. A rare European will perceive as food insects or earthworms, which are considered a delicacy in the countries of South-East Asia. This thesis will describe the term food in the Indo-European environment. It will include the preferences of the people speaking English, Czech, Russian and Norwegian languages. They share a common Indo-European historical background, however, because of their physical position, different food tastes and traditions. The main reason why I have choose to write this work and include information about exactly Russian, Czech, English and Norwegian is because I have experience with three of those languages and it is very interesting to me how all 4 of them might be interacting with each other. I am originally from Russia, so as it my native tongue, it is very intriguing for me to see how it can relate to the Czech language, as they both belong to the same language family. English language was introduced to me since a very young age and as it is lingua franca of modern days, I assume that it is very important to know its history and see how this language has embedded into the culture and everyday life of people all 8 over the world. As for the Norwegian language, I never had a practical experience with it, however for the first 17 years of my life I lived in the part of Russia that is very close to Norway. I used to interact with Norwegian students while studying in high school and I was always curious of how our languages can be so different while we are so close geographically. The Norwegian language is an experimental part of my thesis and while writing it, I have discovered a very amusing results that are described in the first chapter. Before comparing the languages and specific terms, it is crucial to know how described languages were forming throughout the history. The Indo-European family of the languages is the most widespread in the world. It is represented in all inhabited continents of Earth. (Wheeler, 2002). This family includes 443 languages and dialects of Europe and Western Asia. Overall, the population of its speakers includes around 3 billion people. Linguist Thomas Young introduced the term “Indo-European” language in 1813. Sir William Jones was the first one to notice the similarity between the four oldest languages – Sanskrit, Persian, Greek and Latin. He assumed that all of them are coming from one proto-language. This theory was supported by his German colleague Franz Bopp. The proto-language from which the languages of the Indo-European family developed was spoken by people who lived around 5-6 thousands years ago. Scientists consider the territory of the ancient Anatolia to be the proto – ancestral land of the initial version of Indo-European languages. Others think that everything started to develop in the steppes next to the north part of the Black and the Caspian seas. However, still there is no exact decision for the location of the homeland of Indo-European languages. According to Britannica, all Indo-European languages are separated to groups and sub-groups, and all of them were arising at a different time and on different territories. The main focus of this thesis will surround the Germanic group (Norwegian and English languages) and Slavic group (Russian and Czech). 9 It is important to notice that Germanic languages represent a branch of Indo-European family. They are common in the territory of Western-European countries (Great Britain, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), North America (the USA, Canada), Southern Africa (RSA, Namibia), Asia (India), Australia and New Zealand. In addition, the population of speakers reaches 550 million people. The separation from the proto-language started to develop in the 3rd century BC. Germanic languages are separated into 3 following groups: Northern, Eastern and Western. In science, the history of the development of Germanic languages divided into 3 periods: 1) Ancient period: from the emergence of writing until the 11th century, evolution of separate languages. 2) Middle period: 12th - 15th century, the development of writing and the expansion of social functions of the languages. 3) Modern period: 16th century - present time; the formation and normalization of national languages. Scientist also highlight one additional layer of lexis in the Proto-Germanic language - the Pre-Germanic substrate. However, this vocabulary does not have the features of Indo-European etymology. As for the Slavic group, it represents a set of related languages from the Indo-European family. The total amount of the speakers includes 440 million people. According to the relatedness of these family representatives, we can separate them in 3 main groups: 1) East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian); 10 2) South Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian); 3) West Slavic languages (Czech, Slovak, Polish with Kashubian dialect, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian). Slavic languages share a deep closeness in the sound composition, grammatical structure, word formation and in their vocabulary. This feature may only be explained by all these languages having the same historical root. They developed from the same proto-language, which is called Proto-Slavic. Due to the fact that this group has the same ancestor, this set of languages is acknowledged to be related on the genetic level. The term ‘food ’ exists in all languages and in some way or form connects all of them. This is something that is the essential part of every culture. However, this concept is not studied enough from the etymological and lexical point of view. This circumstance explains the preference of this particular topic. This thesis will include the description and the comparison of various vegetables, fish and cereals in the aforementioned cultures. These food groups represent the main products that are required for a healthy life of every person and they are represented in all communities in various forms. Cereals were chosen because it is one of the first foods that was ever consumed by human and since ancient times it strengthened the immunity system of our ancestors and allowed to survive in severe conditions. Later on in the history, humanity started to develop agriculture and actively work in fields. That is how vegetables were implemented into a peoples diet. Nowadays it is very hard to imagine healthy and balanced lifestyle without them. Furthermore, fish is included to the thesis because it represents the hunting part of a human life. Due to the fact that this thesis includes analysis of Norwegian language, it is important to mention fish, as this industry is highly developed and crucial for the country. All together, the described foods represent the base of the nutrition pyramid that keeps health of every person strong. 11 In addition, the main aim of the thesis will be to create a parallel between the development of the cultures and languages they use via their gastronomical preferences throughout history.