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E 0533 LESSON, LESAN
The word " lesson " is, via Old French, of Latin origin.
The Old Saxon word " lesan " is of Germanic origin .
H 0554 ן ו
ש
ל ; * ן ש ל
Concept of root : speaking
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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;* ן ש ל
ן ו ש ל
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*lashan;
lashon
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to speak, declare;
language, speech
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Related English words
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lesson;
Old English lesan
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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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* ן ש ל
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ן ו ש ל
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*lashan
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lashon
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*to speak, declare;
language, speech
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l . sh . n
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Greek
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λεγω
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lego
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to speak, say
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l . g
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Latin
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legere;
lectio(nis)
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legere
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to read, - -out loud
reading, - - out loud
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l . g
l . c (n)
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Old Saxon
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lesan
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to read
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l . s
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German
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lesen
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lézen
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to read
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l . s
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Dutch
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lezen
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lézen
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to read
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l . z
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Proto-Semitic *LASAN < *LASÀ --- *LĒS-, Old Saxon
The concept of reading is in various languages expressed with the use of roots that carried messages of speaking. This is the case with English "to read" that is related to German "reden" that says "to talk". Old Saxon , that was a predecessor or building element of Old English, had the verb "redon" for "to speak".
In this issue we find the root "L S", with variations of "L SH" and "L Z", that says "to speak". It should be noted that "to speak" basically supposes a kind of contents of the spoken word or speech that is not necessary for the other English word "to talk".
It is the concept of "speaking" , communicate or teach important things that has led to that of "reading". This has come about simply because the limited number of literate people had to read aloud for the others to make them understand the written passages and especially teachings. This kind of development is confirmed in Hebrew with the root "Q R", found in entry E 0217 (Hebrew 0767).
Note:
- Greek "lego" has elaborated many more emphasized meanings regarding ways, intentions and effects of human speaking, but has not gone into the direction of "to read".
Note:
- Latin. Latin "lego" has the precise message of "reading", and also specifically "read to", "read out" and "recite" that are practices that have carried historically from the meaning of to speak to that of "to read". Interesting is that a word like abovementioned "lectio", in modern languages has come to mean "lesson". The probable explanation is the influence of the existing Germanic roots .
Note:
- Latin and Germanic, in respectively "legere" and "lesen", both express two quite different concepts, one being that of "to collect", the other that of "to read". Usually scholars link these two meanings together by considering that there is only one verb "legere" and one verb "lesen". The comparison with Hebrew teaches us that the verbs may be similar, but have different origins. See our entry number E 0532 "lesan" (Hebrew 0552 ,laqath).
Note:
- Hebrew, already in Biblical times, had lost the basic verb of this entry. But it still had conserved the noun "lashon".
Already in Biblical times, the causative form of the verb "lashan", that is "hilshin", was used to express the concept of "to slander". But the word "lishon" was and has remained "tongue, speech, language". So "lishanŕ" in Post Biblical texts .
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. Proto-Semitic is seen with two hypothetical roots: " *L SH (N) " and "* L S (N) ". This is based on the fact that a number of languages use the S as second consonant : such as Phoenician, Eblaitic and Arabic "lisān", Tigrai and Ethiopian "lesān" and Amharic. Others use the SH : Hebrew and Akkadian "lishānu", Aramaic "ל ש ן , lishan" , again Aramaic and Syriac " ל ש ן א , lishana ; leshana". It is interesting to note that the S is also present in Germanic languages. It remains difficult to opt for one of the two as "original".
We might think of another, a bit daring hypothesis. If the final N of the noun "lishon" is just a suffix for the shaping of this noun, or otherwise an extension of an older two consonant root, there may have been a verb " * lashŕ" with an intensive "*lishŕ". This would confirm the similarity in origin with the Indo European words . In this context it is worthwhile to note that words for " tongue, language " with this couple of roots are widely found in Semitic languages, but apparently not the basic verb. Proto-Semitic may already have used a basic "*ל ש ה , L S H (accentuated vowel)", but also already "*ל ש ן , L S N". Obviously the meaning "to read" was not known before there were written texts .
Note:
- S versus G in respectively German with Hebrew and Greek with Latin give us an unsolved
problem. We know that German K/G may correspond with Slavic S/Z and variations. And in
the already mentioned entry E 0532 (Hebrew 0552 we have seen some lines of separation between Greek,
Hebrew and Germanic.
But here the separation follows again a different line and we have as yet no explanation for
this phenomenon.
Note:
- English "to lie, to lay" are verbs that have their sisters in German (liegen, legen) and other
Germanic tongues and find also relatives in Greek ( f .e. λεχος , lekhos= bed) and Latin (f. e. lectus = bed) , but they just form a group of words that have identical or similar roots to those
of this entry, though being of different linguistic origin.
Note:
- Proto-Germanic. In older languages we find Old Saxon "lesan", Old High German "lesan", Old Frisian "lesa", Old Norse "lesa". Proto-Germanic has never been written, so there can have been no root that expressed "to read".
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 04/11/2012 at 18.05.05 |
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