Skip to main content

Gëlltis: A Word's Journey from Albanian to Other Languages

Kolec Topalli claims that "gëlltis" is a borrowing from Proto-Slavic *glъtiti, a word that does not exist in any Slavic dictionary. However, the etymology of this word in the Albanian language is straightforward: it originates from the meaning of "gëlltis" as passing from the mouth to the stomach or swallowing through the mouth, which is also expressed as "golë" (mouth) in the Cham dialect and "gojë" in standard Albanian.

In this dialect, the word "gola" is the basic root
from which this word originates. The etymological compositions are variations of Gol+fyt, Gol-fut-, Gol-tan-hy, etc., with compound words formed with Gol (mouth), hy (enter), ha/han (eat), fus (put), tan (all), and fyt (throat) being the roots of this word in different languages.

Another Albanian word, "kollofit," confirms the semantics of the Albanian language itself and shares the same root as "gëlltis." This verb also originates from "gole," where g>k. Additionally, the ending form of the verb "fut" (put) is related.

The word "gëlltis" has been transformed into other languages as "khelidon," "swallow," etc. We can see the rotations of "g-o-l-e" in swealg, swolgen, *swelgan/*swelhan, svelgja, zwelgen, gulp."
The linguists think that it is held to be from PIE root *swel- (1) "to eat, drink," which I think is not accurate.
The word "swallow" has various semantic relations with the given words:
1. Golë _Mouth_ and grykë, fyt _throat_: Swallowing involves the physical act of moving food or liquid from the mouth, through the throat, and into the stomach.
2. _Ha and Han_ (Eat): Swallowing is a crucial part of the eating process. When you eat, you chew food and then swallow it.
3. -Fus and Vë-(Put): The act of swallowing can be seen as putting food or liquid into one's body.
4. _hy and hin_ (Enter): Swallowing involves the entry of food or liquid into the body, specifically the stomach.

These semantic relations highlight the connections between "swallow" and other words related to the physical act of consuming food or liquid using the mouth or "golë" of the Albanian language.

By tracing the etymology of "gëlltis" to the Albanian root "Gola," (mouth) as the main root of the word it becomes clear that the word originates from the Albanian language.

References:
Topalli, K. (2017). "Gëlltit." In Fjalor Etimologjik i Gjuhës Shqipe, Durrës, Albania: Jozef, page 537.
Albanian Dictionary:
gëlltis (swallow) transitive verb; -a, -ur

1. pass from the mouth to the stomach (water, food, etc.); convey, swallow: I swallowed aspirin.

kollofis (swallow) transitive verb; -a, -ur
swallow or gulp something in one breath; eat quickly and in large pieces; slurp: you gutted a whole chicken.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Robert Beekes failed on Pre-Greek

Robert Stephen Paul Beekes (Dutch: [ˈbeːkəs]; 2 September 1937 – 21 September 2017) was a Dutch linguist who was professor of comparative Indo-European linguistics at Leiden University and the author of many monographs on the Proto-Indo language. European. Robert Beekes also worked on Pre-Greek, the language he called non-Indo-European, spoken in Greece before Greek, according to him probably around 2000 BC. Since this language was not written, Beekes took his information from many words in classical Greek that show a non-Greek structure and development.  One of these words is *ἀδάμας , whose etymology I deduced in 2014 without reading his book.  I wrote in this blog: "Do linguists know that ἀδάμας – adámas of old Greek exists in today's Albanian in the form of "pa ndam"? When I read his book and these very words, I was stunned. How can a linguist of such a level not understand this word and its origin.  Beekes writes: "Adamas, hard metal? Diamond? Derived from...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nephilim

N 'eh - Ph 'ih- L 'ee- M /  Nepheeleem Zacharia Sitchin (July 11, 1920 – October 9, 2010)  wrote the " Nephilim " (נְפִילִים) is derived from “nafàl" and means “fall". The term Nephilim occurs in Genesis 6:1-4, describing the point of time when three things began: men began to increase in number, came into existence the daughters of men , and the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. Is the "nephillim" really only a Hebrew word? That question is very subtle, however I think it has been more a limit of thinking for linguists rather than a serious argument. Let's begin first with the probable meaning the linguists think it is. We know that the " fall"  in every language means moving downward from a higher position involuntarily, usually by an accident, which maybe was the reason why Michael S. Heiser, PhD candidate, Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies , University of Wisconsin...
10 comments
Read more

Word creation. The "D" letter origin and the "D" pictogram rule of the word creation.

  In this article I will cover  the origin of the letter  D letter, and the pictogram concept of the word creation.  It was my first discovery of the word creation. In this blog I will give my discoveries, the rules of word creation of the European languages. Multiple theories exist as to how language first originated. Nobody is sure which one is true. Certified Translations Get Pricing Order Translation What is the Oldest Language in the World? There are over 7,000 languages in the world. Could there have been a time on the earth that we all spoke one language? If so, what is the oldest language in the world?  So what was the first language?  Discovering the first language that people spoke is difficult because so many languages died and were considered lost in history. However, ancient languages still survive until today; these languages may have been transformed a lot but their old origins may be traceable. Written languages existed but this does n...
5 comments
Read more