Cognate Set 651 – Meaning: stone
- IE-CoR reference form:
- kʿar
- IE-CoR reference language:
- Armenian: Classical
- Ideophonic:
- no
- Parallel derivation:
- no
- Proposed as cognate to:
-
[*carrā-] [Celtic]
scale: 1
- Justification:
- Origin uncertain. Since Pedersen 1905:220 connected with OIr. carrac 'rock', further compared to Classical Sanskrit karkara- 'hard, firm', Greek κάρκαρος 'prison' by HAB IV:558-560, Jahukyan & Sargsyan 2010:778. Martirosyan 2010:685-686 considers a substratum loanword which is also shared with Germanic via pre-Proto-Germanic *karko/u- *'stony rise (where cultic rites were practiced)" (> OE hearg, OHG harug, OIc. harg), comparable to Armenian Kʻarkʻē the name of a mountain of religious importance. Cf. also Vendryes et al. 1959–1996 C:42-43 who rather assumes a Western Mediterranean substratum origin for the proposed Celtic cognates. If this is the same substratum word as in Celtic and/or Germanic, it is difficult to determine whether this was a single loan event or parallel loan events.
- Found in clades:
- Armenian
- Revised by:
- Matthew Scarborough
Found in 1 clade by 3 lexemes.
- References
- Ačaṙean, Hračʿeay: IV:558-560
- Jahukyan, G. B. and Sargsyan, Vahan: 778
Cf. OIr. carrac 'rock; cliff', Welsh carn 'stone, cairn', carrog 'stony river'; OE hearg 'heathen temple; altar', OHG harug, OIc. harg 'open area for worship; *heap of stones, stone rise (for practicing cultic rites)'; cf. also Skt. kar-kar-a- 'hard, firm'; Gk. κάρκαρος 'rough'; etc.
- Martirosyan, Hrach: 656, 685-686
S.v. Arm. kʻar 'stone'; for etymology, cf. s.v. mountain name Kʻarkʻ-ē, a mountain in the province of Turuberan in the districts of Tarōn and Palunikʻ, on the river Euphrates-Aracani. "The Armenian Kʻarkʻē, the name of a mountain of a considerable religious importance, reflects substratum *kar-k- 'stony rise (where cultic rites were practiced)', itself a derivative of *kar- > Arm. kʻar 'stone'. Particularly impressive is the Germanic cognate, *karko/u- *'stony rise (where cultic rites were practiced)" (cf. OE hearg 'heathen temple, altar, sanctuary, idol', OHG harug (referring to an area in the open for cult practice), OIc. harg (referring to clumps of stones in an area for cult practice), cf. also Welsh carrog 'stony river' < *karrākā, OIr. carrac 'cliff', carn 'stone grave').
- Olsen, Birgit Anette: 176
Arm. kʻar 'stone' (i-stem in sg., n-stem in the pl.) has been suggested to be connected with Old Irish carrac 'rock' ([Pedersen 1905](src-747):220, cf. [IEW](src-49) 532, [Vendryes et al. 1959–1996](src-296) C:42f.), but it is also possible that this is a word of non-IE origin (and in which case the irregular inflection cannot be determined).
- Pedersen, Holger: 220
Suggests "vielleicht gehört kʻar 'stein, fels' zu ir. carric 'stein, fels'."
- Vendryes, Joseph and Bachellery, Edouard and Lambert, Pierre-Yves: C:42-43
Cf. s.v. OIr. carrac 'roche'. There is no need to posit a root *kar- 'dur' but it's rather a derivative of an Ibero-Mediterranean *carrā 'pierre' which is found, among others in Basque harri 'pierre', Béarnese carroc and with various suffixes in the languages of Western Europe. Cf. also MW carrawc, Modern Welsh carrog 'torrent' (= le ruisseau rempli de cailloux?). Cf. [Pedersen 1909](src-307):23, 83; [IEW](src-49) 532.
