E 0654            OWN,  AGEN

The word "own" is a development of the Old English word "agen"

H 0018          א ח

Concept of root: one’s own

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

א ח ;

-

א ח ה

agh;

-

aghà

brother(in all senses ), kinsman, friend;  

to join, put-, grow together 

Related English words

own; Old English : āgen

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

 א ח

 -

 -

 -

 א ח ה

 -

 -

agh

-

-

-

aghà

-

-

brother  (in all senses), kinsman, friend;

to join, put-, grow together

a gh

English

own

own

o w

Old English

āgen; ah

to own; owns

a g

German

eigen

eigen

own

ei g

Dutch

eigen

eighen

own

ei gh

Middle Dutch

ogen

oghen

to own, possess

o gh

 

 

Proto-Semitic *AGH --- *AIGH,*EIGH Proto-Germanic

 

 

This entry can be seen in connection with entry GR 1163 (Hebrew 0023). The C.C.-root "A GH" in this view stands for a strong way of holding and belonging. The roots are similar in sound, but the common origin remains uncertain, just based on our hypothesis of an original meaning of "belonging" for both Semitic and Germanic.

 

Both German and Dutch have expressions from which comes some support for this hypothesis . "Mijn broeder is mijn eigen vlees en bloed", or "My brother is my own flesh and blood ". This line of thought has nothing to do with matters of material property, but refers to the ancient sense of this root, which has been maintained in Hebrew.

 

Note:
  • Germanic languages as shown have a final N. In the referred verbs in Old English and Middle Dutch these final "N" are suffixes to shape the infinitive. In the German and Dutch words "eigen" we have descendantys of what originally was a past participle of the same verbs. This "N" as third consonant is thus not yet consequently present in older Germanic languages and it is not seen in Hebrew : " * Aleph GH" , that is also present in Aramaic , or else " * A H" as found in Akkadian, Ethiopian and Arabic. As explained by the fact that the actual words as seen in the table, in fact are participles , consisting ot the root indicating the act of possessing or taken in possession, with a suffix -N . This can be compared with English " take " and " taken " . So this final N in the table is not considered as being part of the root . Indeed for "(one's) own) there are Old Saxon "egan, Old English "agan, Gothic aigan, but Old Norse "eiga and Old Frisian "aga.

 

Note:
  • English. Middle English drastically changes the word into "owen", leading to modern English "own". The original Old English words were certainly hard to pronounce for the French speaking Norman conquerors.

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic There is a hypothesis "*AIGH-", but the following information induces us to consider possible also a form "*EIGH-". The opening vowel is mostly "EI" ( German , Norwegian and Dutch with predecessors ) , "E" in Old Saxon and Danish, "E" with alternative "Ä" in Swedish and Old Swedish, "AI" in Gothic "aig-, aih-" and A in Old English and Old Frisian. The following consonant is mostly "G", but in Old Swedish, Dutch and Middle Dutch there is "GH" and In Gothic, Old Saxon and Old English "G", but with an alternative "H" or "GH".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic Hebrew has abolished in its development nearly all suffixes in its nouns, and uses rather "pure" roots, limiting itself to variations of the vowels that are used "within" those roots. This process had been about completed already in the old language that is Bibical Hebrew. The root of this entry is also seen as a word in Phoenician, but in Aramaic " א ח א, 'agh'à" one finds a final Aleph that is not part of the root. Similar roots, with or without suffixes, are found in Arabic, Akkadian and Ethiopian. Proto-Semitic, though certainly using suffixes to shape nouns, probably had a root similar to Hebrew : א ח .

 

Note:
  • Southern Semitic tongues have an E-sound as in English " item " instead of the first A . This can be seen written phonetically as " è " for example in Ethiopic "ehu". This is very interesting as it brings us somewhat nearer to many Germanic words, such as the German and Dutch " eigen " .

 

Note:
  • Indo-European. Outside Germanic we have no information that would allow a hypothesis for Indo-European. The Old Indian word īśa- = lord" and Avestan is = wealth" are sometimes seen as related, buit they are too far off in both sound and meaning.

 

 

 

 
"...the town, to which was given the name Babel, because it was there that the Lord confused the language of all the world on the face of which He dispersed them. GENESIS 11,9"
 
Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 21/12/2012 at 10.51.03