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E 0724 RICE
The English word "rice" comes via French and Latin
from Greek
H 0070 א ר ז
Concept of root: rice
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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א ר ז
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orez
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rice
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Related English words
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rice
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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א ר ז
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orez
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rice
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o r .
z
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Greek
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ορυζα
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orüza
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rice
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o r .
z
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New Greek
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ρυζι
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rizi
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rice
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r . z
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Old Indian
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*vrihi
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wrihi
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rice
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w r . z
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Old Persian
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vriz
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wriz
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rice
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w r . z
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English
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rice
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rice
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r . c
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Hebrew *OREZ --- *ORÜZI Greek
Rice was cultivated in China around 2800 a.e.v., in India about 2000 a.e.v. and in the Middle East about 400 a.e.v., especially in the Euphrates Valley. The Greeks made acquaintance with this grain under Alexander the Great. The Jews, living at the time also near the Euphrates , must have used a word for " rice " and can hardly have loaned it from the Greeks. It would rather have been the other way about. It still is possible that the name of "rice" travelled West together with the product.
Note:
- Greek and Hebrew.
The similarity between Hebrew and Greek is very clear. Some doubt may be created by the fact that Greek scholars think this word may be a loanword. But they have no defined idea which language may have been the generous loaner. Others, looking at Spanish and Portuguese "arroz" for rice, say that is a loanword from Arab "uruz".
This kind of reasoning appears like an obvious truth, because the Arabs have been in Spain for 800 years, but yet it seems simply wrong. We can say this because also Rumanian has the initial vowel in "oriz". Rumenian comes directly from Latin and has nothing to do with Arabs. Besides this, the classic Romans used the Greek word "oryza" and only much later a latinized form "risium" was used.
Interesting is that while some Greek scholars think their word has been borrowed, also some Hebrew scholars suppose their word is a Hebreization of the Greek one,
naturally occurring in the period of Post Biblical Hebrew . Various words for rice are
Old Indian "vrihi", Pashtun "vrize" and Persian "brizi".
As the Greek and Hebrew
words begin with an O, they have not been loaned from the east, but must have a
common origin ( in a Waw ) with those other words .
The Japanese word for rice,
that is "warai" , may confirm this hypothesis .
The Classic Greek and Hebrew words
are unsufficiently similar to presume a simple borrowing.
Note:
- Indo-European. When we expand some from European to Indo-European, comprehending the Old Indian and Old Persian words we mentioned above, the picture becomes clearer still. Both words begin with the letter Greeks and Jews call "waw". This letter has a wide range of developments. According to the position in a word it may vary from U to O to W and V. And at the end of the word it may become "F", whereas at the beginning it often has become a "Y" ( especially in Hebrew) or disappeared completely (as in Greek).
With this it becomes clear that the "V" at the beginning of the eastern words vrihi and vriz may well, not to say certainly do, correspond to the "O" at the beginning of the European and Hebrew ones. The conclusion is that we have a common word for "rice" all over the place. This should not surprise at all.
With that we still do not know when and where this common word originated. Probably outside Indo-European.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic.
The Hebrew word "orez" , that is spelled also with a Waw after the Aleph, is found in Post Biblical texts. But there can hardly have been a Proto-Semitic word for " rice ", as this language was spoken before rice came to the Middle East.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 26/09/2012 at 14.06.56 |
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