I just awoke to the real Aphrodite.
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 9:17 pm
I often don't like etymologies of personal names due to their lack of known etymology. Yet, there is one name which now I think I know the true etymology. The name Aphroditē is of unknown etymology or should I say there are various theories. As all of you know I do not like folk etymologies so I am going to tackle this using real linguistics.
The most credible explanation for Greek Aphroditē is that Greek borrowed the word from the Albanian Afërditë. Here is why. Ancient Greek "ph" is a voiceless aspirated bilabial stop. Greek did not have an "f" until much later (which developed from ph) during the early AD years. Albanian by this time likely did, but since Greek did not, it approximated the nearest sound it had to "f" which is "ph". The two components of Albanian Afërditë are well-known, afër (near) + ditë (day). As well, ditë is an Indo-European root so its etymology goes back 5,000+ years. The meaning of afër and ditë makes perfect sense "near day", the morning star which in English we call Venus.
The theories that Greek loaned it via Phoenician do not work out phonologically at all. I have seen some other possible etymologies of Aphroditē using other IE roots, but they aren't quite as strong in meaning.
Albanian zot still causes me issues. Linguistics are divided on it. It may be a cognate with Greek Zeus, remember though Ancient Greek Zeus was pronounced /zdeus/. Demiraj has Albanian zot and Greek Zeus as cognates coming from PIE *deywo-. In addition it is *deywo + Albanian atë (father). Others see Albanian zot coming from PIE *wik'+pot- meaning Master of the House. I prefer the first etymology as the second one requires a lot more sound changes.
The most credible explanation for Greek Aphroditē is that Greek borrowed the word from the Albanian Afërditë. Here is why. Ancient Greek "ph" is a voiceless aspirated bilabial stop. Greek did not have an "f" until much later (which developed from ph) during the early AD years. Albanian by this time likely did, but since Greek did not, it approximated the nearest sound it had to "f" which is "ph". The two components of Albanian Afërditë are well-known, afër (near) + ditë (day). As well, ditë is an Indo-European root so its etymology goes back 5,000+ years. The meaning of afër and ditë makes perfect sense "near day", the morning star which in English we call Venus.
The theories that Greek loaned it via Phoenician do not work out phonologically at all. I have seen some other possible etymologies of Aphroditē using other IE roots, but they aren't quite as strong in meaning.
Albanian zot still causes me issues. Linguistics are divided on it. It may be a cognate with Greek Zeus, remember though Ancient Greek Zeus was pronounced /zdeus/. Demiraj has Albanian zot and Greek Zeus as cognates coming from PIE *deywo-. In addition it is *deywo + Albanian atë (father). Others see Albanian zot coming from PIE *wik'+pot- meaning Master of the House. I prefer the first etymology as the second one requires a lot more sound changes.
