E 0403          GULLY , KILL

The words " gully " and " kill "( from Middle Dutch ) are of Germanic origin .

H 0645            ל ח נ

Concept of root : waterstream

Hebrew word

pronunciation

English meanings

ל ח נ

naghal

waterstream; valley with stream; land with wadi

Related English words

gully; kill from Dutch

Comparison between European words and Hebrew

Languages

Words

Pronunciation

English meanings

Similarity in roots

Hebrew

ל ח נ

naghal

water-stream; valley with stream; land with wadi

n . gh . l

English

gully

deep ditch shaped by running water

g . l .

Dutch

geul,

kil

gheul,

kil

water-stream, riverbed

gh . l;

k . l

Old Norse

kill

kil

sea-arm

k . l

Danish 

kil

kil

stream between shoals

k . l

Middle Low German

göle

geule

wet lowland

g . l .

 

 

Proto-Semitic *NAGHAL --- "* K I L-", *GŬL- Proto-Germanic

 

 

A stream of water is a thing that moves, and a prefix N fits into the concept of "to flow on and on". The remaining two consonants "GH L" correspond with sound and message of the Germanic words of this entry.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew calls a big important river, such as the Nile, Euphrate or Tigris, with a word that is perhaps akin to "naghal", a " נ ה ר , nehar = big river". For smaller rivers that in Israel often flow with more vehemence, we have the word with the stronger central consonant GH.

 

Note:
  • Hebrew and Dutch both give some further meanings to this root, such as "water-filled lowland" as well as "affluent" and "creek".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Semitic. This root is found in Aramaic and Syriac " נ ח ל א, naghelà". Ugaritic uses the same root, but in line with the geographical and climatic situation, the accent is more on the concept of "valley" than on that of the water flowing through it. The same goes for Akkadian naghlu. Interesting is the OSArabic meaning of valley ( with) grove of palm trees, but it is the place where water is found anyway, which is essential to the root. Probably it was used in Proto-Semitic: "* נ ח ל , N GH L".

     

    The initial " N " of this root may be considered a confirming or emphasizing prefix, which then means that there was an original two consonant root "*GH . L (.)", but there is not much clear proof of this. The prefix " N " is a confirming one that is applied to roots. This is then often seen in verbs, but in this case we have only nouns available. There is an identical root with a verb "naghal", but the meaning is unrelated : "to obtain". And however frequent the combination "GH . L" may be, also with a third consonant following, it is difficult to find an indication of a meaning that can be considered related to that of "waterstream". In Psalm 49 : 2 one finds the word "ח ל ד , gheled". This is translated as "the flowing of the world" or " the fleeting world", which comes figuratively near. But others translate simply as "world", though this seems again falling short of the sense of using this special noun.

     

    Anyhow, without clear proof of a root "GH W L " for a stream of water or a canal, one must consider the possibility that the similarity of this entry is fortuitous.

 

Note:
  • English " gully " is thought to be an alteration of " gullet " , and thus derived from Latin "gula " for " throat ". This seems wrong, if we consider the fact that in Dutch the words " geul " for " gully " and "keel" for " throat" live separate lives. And that "keel" is related to Old English " ceole " with the same meaning .

 

Note:
  • Dutch uses the diphthong that sounds like one single vowel and for which we have no Latin-like transcription. Its sound is very near to that of French "eu" in "gueule" or "peur", known to many readers. Both "geul" and "kil" are waterstreams, but a "geul" may have higher banks, whereas a "kil" will flow through low lands.

 

Note:
  • German gives us some related words in Middle Low German "göle =wet lowland" and Middle High German "gülle = pool, wetland".

 

Note:
  • Proto-Germanic There are two related roots. The evidence is limited but important. In the first place there is Old Norse "kill" and Middle Dutch and Old Frisian "kille". Modern Norwegian, Swedish and Danish as well as Dutch have "kil". It must be noted that some scholars see this word as related to German "Keil" and Nordic "kile" for "wedge", but the semantic distance is really too long. Proto-Germanic probably had "*K I L-". Secondly there is English "gully" with Dutch "geul", that has also given its name to a small but romantic river in southern Limburg, near Maastricht : Geul. Middle Low German has "göle = wet depression" and Middle High German "gülle = pool, wallow". Probably Proto-Germanic had also this version : "*G Ŭ L-".

 

 

 

 

 
"...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: Thursday 7 February 2013 at 16.01.35