Hi, Ivan!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

AH>  Can you spell it for us using the Latin alphabet?  I'm
AH>  curious about this because two of my dictionaries say...
AH>  to make a long story short... that "language" and "tongue"
AH>  in English originated from much the same source.  The
AH>  former came from the Latin "lingua" via Old French while
AH>  the latter came from an older form of the same Latin word
AH>  via some of our Teutonic ancestors.  :-)

IS>  As per Wiktionary, both descend from a Proto-Indo-European
IS>  word of the same meaning: "language" indeed through Latin
IS>  "lingua", but "tongue" comes via Proto-Germanic "*tungon".


           Similar to the Old English "tunge", definitely!  The references I
consulted didn't trace the etymology any further back than 900 AD... but I'm
always delighted to hear I have inspired somebody to do a bit more research.

           As we say in English, "Many hands make light work".  :-))



IS>  ... But should one go back as far as to meet PIE, its
IS>  Russian descendant "yazyk" also becomes visible.


           Okay, I'll take your word for it.  ;-)



IS>  PS.  As for the alphabets, it gets even more funny.  AIUI,


           As I understand it?  That's a new one on me....  :-)



IS>  all the ones currently in use are derived either from the
IS>  Egyptian hieroglyphs (via the Phoenecian script, for the
IS>  majority of the surviving writing systems), or from the
IS>  Chinese ones.


           Hmm... could be, I guess.

           According to various history books I've seen which offer specific
examples of how hieroglyphs are interpreted, a sketch of a bird (e.g.) could
represent either that particular bird *or* a particular sound.  I reckon the
Phoenicians & others further developed the ancient Egyptian tradition of  a)
using symbols to represent sounds, and  b) using quicker & easier variations
for business purposes... by contrast with religious & political purposes, in
which the goal(s) evidently had a lot more to do with impressing the masses.

           The idea of "picture writing" sounds so simple, and so intuitive,
that people often fail to realize the ancient Egyptians deliberately made it
complicated... more so as time went by... because only the elite (another of
those words which may be correctly spelled where I come from with or without
the e acute) were taught to read.  Picture writing is still used in English,
however, as an exercise for young readers.  When we use a drawing of an eye,
e.g., as = the pronoun "I" we describe this form of writing as a rebus.  Oh,
and in recent years we've adopted "international symbols" for various things
... but one must realize that "person wearing skirt" does not include men in
kilts & "person wearing trousers" does not include women in blue jeans.  The
concepts may have to be learned, just as they do with words in general.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)