Did Proto-Indo-European Have a Word for Wheat? Hittite šeppit(t)- Revisited and the Rise of Post-PIE Cereal Terminology

Adam Hyllested

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Chapter 5 Did Proto-Indo-European Have a Word for Wheat? Hittite šeppit(t)- Revisited and the Rise of Post-PIE Cereal Terminology

In: Dispersals and Diversification

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Adam Hyllested

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Pages:: 130–143

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004416192_007

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Abstract

Hittite šeppit(t)- ‘(a kind of) wheat’ can be identified as a borrowing from Akkadian or another Semitic language, identical to the Mediterranean culture-word that has ended up in English as semnel. There is thus no basis for a PIE reconstruction *sép-it meaning ‘wheat’. The very suffix *-it, which Watkins (1978) interpreted as a marker for ‘(basic) foodstuffs’, is likewise a phantom. Balkan Indo-European *álbʰ-it and Iranian *arpucya-, both ‘barley’, are borrowings from separate dialectal reflexes of Turkic *arpa ‘barley’; the former acquired its suffix in analogy with *mél-it ‘honey’ because the two terms were interpreted as *albʰ- ‘white’ and *mel- ‘dark’, respectively—an important distinction in ritual contexts.

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Dispersals and Diversification

Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Stages of Indo-European

Series: Brill's Studies in Indo-European Languages & Linguistics, Volume: 19

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004416192

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 06 Dec 2019

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Chapter 5 Did Proto-Indo-European Have a Word for Wheat? Hittite šeppit(t)- Revisited and the Rise of Post-PIE Cereal Terminology

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Dispersals and Diversification

Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Stages of Indo-European

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