Abstract
This article examines etymology not as a narrow linguistic procedure but as a philosophical and epistemological investigation into the origins of human language. It argues that etymological inquiry, when freed from prevailing contemporary ideological constraints, becomes a multidimensional method for uncovering the conceptual, symbolic, and physical structures embedded in words. Using Albanian as a primary case study, the article proposes that the Albanian language preserves conceptual and symbolic forms that challenge widely accepted Indo-European reconstructions. Through examples such as the semantic field of circle and the problematic etymology of Latin prātum, the paper highlights the need to reassess linguistic origins by reintroducing Albanian into comparative analysis.
1. Introduction
Etymology has often been reduced to a technical exercise concerned with tracing phonological developments and reconstructing hypothetical roots. Such an approach, shaped by modern linguistic ideologies, overlooks the deeper philosophical dimension of word origins. When conducted with a clear purpose and without ideological bias, etymology becomes a comprehensive and circular intellectual operation: a process that encompasses every conceptual point within the multidimensional structure of a word.
Rather than functioning merely as an investigation, etymology is a means toward an ultimate goal: the discovery of a word’s ancestral source, the linguistic “mother and father” that generated it, and the original conceptual framework in which it took form.
2. The Philosophical Dimensions of Etymology
Words, once freed from accumulated layers of phonetic and semantic distortion, reveal their primordial symbolic architecture. Their most ancient forms illuminate how early humans interpreted both the external physical world and their internal psychological world—a relationship forged through imitation, reflection, and conceptual abstraction over millennia.
Seen in this light, etymology is not an exhibition of antiquarian knowledge. It is a method of intellectual introspection. It compels the researcher to confront the origins of language and to engage deeply with the conceptual world of ancestors.
This investigative impulse begins with the fundamental question: Where does true knowledge lie? It grows into a systematic introspection grounded in one’s own language. This inner intellectual instinct draws the researcher toward the creative vision of earlier generations, toward “the flesh and bone” of original linguistic thought.
3. The Centrality of Albanian in Linguistic Inquiry
A crucial contention of this study is that no comprehensive understanding of linguistic origins is possible without the analytical inclusion of the Albanian language. The structure and conceptual logic of Albanian words challenge many dominant etymological assumptions. They question long-held conclusions about the sources of the first spoken and written languages in Europe.
The origin of Albanian words often reveals a coherent conceptual system—a meaningful symbolic network connecting physical reality, human perception, and linguistic expression. Such coherence forms a “living structure,” offering a unique window into the cognitive and cultural processes of early Indo-European and pre-Indo-European communities.
Modern linguistics, however, has largely excluded Albanian from etymological reconstruction. This omission has distorted many conclusions and allowed ideological frameworks to overshadow an honest search for the origin of language.
4. The Case of Circle: Ancestral Imagery and Symbolic Thought
The semantic field surrounding the concept circle illustrates this problem. For the ancestors of the Albanians, the circle constituted a unified conceptual image that later diversified into numerous expressions: rreth, rrotë, rrotull, dru, trup, fije, spin, torište, tarabë, kotal, torollak, trazoj, truall, troje, terhollës, and others.
In the symbolic lexicon of early Albanian culture, the circle possessed an independent material existence. The word-builder employed creative thought to convert this primordial image into a variety of new lexical forms. Thus, each word “calls out its meaning from within itself,” though hearing this inner voice requires a rare sensitivity—an internal linguistic-musical perception.
This symbolic clarity is obscured when Latin circus and Greek kírkos are derived exclusively from the Indo-European root *kr- (“to turn”). Such reconstructions neglect the original conceptual vision of the word and fail to explain specific phonological structures. The Albanian conceptual root preserves an earlier semantic unity from which later forms appear to descend.
5. The Problematic Etymology of Latin prātum
A second example of the limitations of current etymology is the Latin prātum (“meadow”). Modern scholarship attempts to relate prātum to the Indo-European root *prā- (“to bend”), drawing parallels with prāvus (“distorted”) and Old Irish ráth (“fort”). Yet the semantic and formal discrepancies have long been acknowledged. Even De Vaan classifies prātum as “without etymology.”
These inconsistencies highlight the need for methodological reconsideration. Albanian—whose conceptual system is rich in forms related to topography, curvature, enclosure, and land division—remains absent from these reconstructions, despite offering many parallel semantic fields that could clarify the origin of such words.
6. Circularity as a Cognitive and Linguistic Archetype
Before language became an abstract symbolic system, etymology began with human perception. The earliest humans observed circular forms in the world: the Sun, its movement across the sky, the stars orbiting the North Star, and the circular motions of their own bodies. The Sun’s rays—conceptualized as emanations of a “circle”—and its daily path imprinted deep symbolic impressions in the human mind.
These impressions coalesced into the earliest linguistic symbols. Rotational movements of the arm, essential for hunting and survival, reinforced the centrality of circular motion. Such embodied experiences became the first conceptual images—immanent in human cognition and reflected in the earliest forms of language.
Archaeological evidence from the Danube region supports the idea that early communities built circular houses, fortifications, household structures, and tools. These material realities further embedded the “circle” as a central cultural and linguistic archetype.
7. Conclusion
Etymology, when liberated from rigid modern frameworks, becomes a profound philosophical exploration of human cognition and cultural memory. The Albanian language, with its rich symbolic structures and coherent conceptual logic, provides essential evidence for understanding the earliest stages of linguistic development.
The significance of Albanian in linguistic inquiry is not a matter of cultural pride but of methodological necessity. Its exclusion from major etymological reconstructions has limited our understanding of the origins of European languages.
The task of etymology is not merely to identify linguistic ancestry but to reveal the truth of language
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