Ethno reviewEthno reviewЭтнографическое обозрение0869-54153034-6274The Russian Academy of Sciences67239310.31857/S0869541524060103VTDCXEResearch ArticlesСтатьи и материалыResearch ArticleReconstruction of the Proto-Afrasian Cultural Vocabulary of the 11th–10th Millennia BCE: Terms for Watercraft and Metals (An Experience in Systematic Assessment of Available Etymologies and Reconstructions)Реконструкция праафразийской культурной лексики XI–X тыс. до н.э.: термины для плавучих средств и металлов (опыт системной оценки предложенных этимологий и реконструкций)https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5684-3053MilitarevAlexander Yu.МилитаревАлександр Юрьевич
Russian Federation

independent researcher

д. филол. н., независимый исследователь

amilitarev@gmail.com15122024620022827022025Copyright ©; 2024, Russian Academy of SciencesCopyright ©; 2024, Российская академия наук2024Russian Academy of SciencesРоссийская академия наукhttps://journals.eco-vector.com/0869-5415/article/view/672393

The content of the article, as well as of my previous publication in Etnograficheskoe Obozrenie, is the reconstruction of the Proto-Afrasian cultural vocabulary, which is a unique source of information on the ancient history of the West Asian-North African-Mediterranean area of the Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic period, not yet properly appreciated by archaeologists and prehistorians. In this case, we are talking about two groups of terms – for watercraft and for metals (including their processing and products from them) and about the proto-language period of the early Afrasians and their closest descendants – North Afrasians (who spoke a common ancestor language of Semitic, Egyptian, Libyo-Berber and Chadic), whom the author identifies with the creators of the Natufian and Post-Natufian archaeological cultures of the Levant. These proto-languages began to split successively into dialects, which grew into the known (and possibly some extinct and unknown to us) linguistic taxa in the last third of the 11th millennium BCE (namely, Proto-Afrasian, which includes, beside the above-mentioned languages, the South Afrasian – Cushito-Omotic branch) – the first third of the 10th millennium BCE (Proto-North Afrasian). Presented in the article are the etymologies of the reconstructed Proto-Afrasian terms: ten relating to watercraft and navigation, and ten relating to metals. The article has an additional purpose of evaluating and rating the results obtained.

Содержанием статьи, как и моей предыдущей публикации в “Этнографическом обозрении”, является реконструкция праафразийской культурной лексики, представляющей собой уникальный источник сведений по древнейшей истории переднеазиатско-северноафриканско-средиземноморского ареала периода позднего мезолита – раннего неолита, пока не оцененный в должной мере археологами и историками первобытности. В данном случае речь идет о двух группах терминов, обозначающих плавучие средства и металлы (включая их обработку и изделия из них), и о праязыковом периоде ранних афразийцев и их ближайших потомков – североафразийцев (говоривших на языке – общем предке семитских, египетского, ливио-берберских и чадских), которых автор отождествляет с создателями натуфийской и постнатуфийской археологических культур Леванта. Эти праязыки начали последовательно распадаться на диалекты, выросшие в известные нам (а возможно, и в какие-то вымершие и нам не известные) языковые таксоны в последней трети XI (праафразийский, включающий в себя, кроме перечисленных выше языков, южноафразийскую – кушито-омотскую ветвь) – первой трети X тыс. до н.э. (прасевероафразийский). В статье приводятся этимологии реконструированных праафразийских терминов: десяти, относящихся к навигации и плавательным средствам, и десяти – к металлам. У статьи есть и вторая, дополнительная, цель: оценка полученных результатов.

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