3087504 on the etymology of ishtar.pdf

8/10/2019 3087504 On the Etymology of Ishtar.pdf

1/5

On the Etymology of Ishtar

Author(s): George A. BartonReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 31, No. 4 (1911), pp. 355-358Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3087504.

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2/5

On

the Etymology

of

Ishtar.-By

GEORGE

A.

BARTON,

Professor

in

Bryn

Mawr College,

Bryn

Mawr,

Pa.

IN the Journal

of this

Society,

XXVIII,

112-119,

Pro-

fessor

Haupt published

a theory

of the etymology

of

Ishtar.

The article is packed with the wealth of philological material

that we

have

learned to

expect from

the pen

of this

distin-

guished

Semitist.

There

was

one

crucial

point, vital

to

the

whole

case,

in

which

the argument

rested on

one single

example

-an

example,

too,

which did

not

prove the

conclusion

drawn

from

it. The

present

writer

was,

accordingly,

never

convinced

that

the

etymology

offered was

correct. As

the subject

is a

dif-

ficult

one, no dissent

was immediately

expressed.

Since

it

now

appears

that

Dhorme

has been

mislead

by

it,1

it

is

not

out

of place to discuss the point a little further.

Haupt

derives

the

name Ishtar,

rVTnVn

,

&c.

from the

stem

ntK

from which

iTAt

comes,

by the

infixing

of a

ri after the

second radical.

This

n Haupt

regards

as

perhaps

the

feminine

ending

n

moved

backward,

although

he

recognizes

that

it

may

be

the reflexive

II.

Now

it

so

happens

that

IV$

begins

with

X,

and

mnrJV

with

3y.

The

name is found in Hebrew,

Phoe-

nician,

Moabitish,

Aramaic, South

Arabic,

and Ethiopic,

in

all of

which languages

the

r

appears.

That

the same

con-

sonant

stood

at the beginning

of

the

word

in

Semitic

Baby-

lonian,

is shown

by

the fact

that the

name begins with

I.

This

I,

as

is

well

known,

is

often

found

in

Babylonian

and

Assyrian

where

an

3)

was

originally

the

accompanying

consonant.

To

derive

the

name

of this

deity,

once

universally

worshipped

by

the

Semites,

from

nV$,

one

must prove

that

in

primitive

Se-

mitic s

could

be changed

to

3.

In

proof

of

this

Haupt

offers

but

one

example.

The Hebrew

antes

Assyrian

iVtin,

he

derives

from

the

Sumerian

agtan.

This

derivation

from

AS

1 and TA-A-AN

= amount

is, however,

hardly

tenable. Haupt

refers

for

proof

only

to

I

La Religion

Assyrio-Babylonienne,

Paris

1910,

pp.

85 and

116.


3/5

356

George

A.

Barton,

[1911.

the work of

Schorr, Altbabylonische

Rechtsurkunden, p. 163

n.

a

and

p. 208.

All

that these

references prove

is

that

TA-A-AN can mean amount .

They

have

no

bearing

on

the

compound

AS-TAN.

Moreover

Prince

has

pointed out,

(Sumerian

Lexicon,

p..

195),

that istin cannot

well be

derived

from

ASTAN,

because as

early

as

the time of

Hammurabi

(Laws,

xi, 6), it made

a

feminine

istiat.

The

Sumerian

origin

of the

one example

on

which the whole case

rests

is,

accord-

ingly,

very questionable. If istin were

really

derived

from

ASTAN,

the initial

V

would

be

paralleled

in modern

Syriac

in

which Ireland appears

as

,

and

oxygen

as

.

(cf. N61deke, Gramnatik

der

neusyrischen

Spracche,

. 60).

As

noted

below,

this

phenomenon is accompanied

in

modern

Syriac

by

an

interchange

of

I

and

:;

this is

paralleled in

Babylonian

and

Assyrian

by

the

confusion of all the

gutturals

except

I. That outlying

dialects of Semitic in which distinc-

tions

between the

guttuials

were passing away could

exhibit

such

phenomena, is not

strange, but it

is

quite another thing

to ask

us

to believe that such interchange

occurred ill un-

contaminated primitive Semitic.

Atin

appears in Hebrew in

the

Babylonian period of

Hebrew history as stri.

It occurs

in

Jeremiah, but not in

the text of the Book; only

in

the

editorial title (1 $3) and an exilic

supplement

(52:

5). Its

earliest occurrence is

really in Ezekiel

(40

49). Whether

of

Semitic or foreign

origin,

it does not

appear

in

the Semitic

dialects

generally.

on the other

hand, is a primitive Semitic

word. It

is

found in all the great

divisions of the

Semitic speech. To

prove that it is derived from the stem -1e, it is necessary to

show

that in primitive

Semitic

N

and

V

were interchangeable.

Proof

for

this is

altogether lacking.

It is

perfectly true that

in widely scattered

Semitic dialects

X

sometimes stood for

V,

but, as Haupt

admits, this was all in

comparatively late time. It came about

when in many parts

of

the

Semitic world

V

was losing its original

quality.

Thus in

Hebrew,

NDS (Esther) is probably a

spelling

of

Ishtar taken over from

the Babylonian

after the quality of

the V had disappeared. Similarly, in the Targum Yorusalmi

and

the

Palestinian Talmud

MV$

occurs for

MsN,

to weary

ones

self and wybn for

wN2rn

it is

unfavorable' . In the

Talmud

M5TnT

s sometimesspelled

NT18:'

cf.

Dalman,

Arami)ische


4/5

Vol.

xxxi.]

On

the Etymology of

Ishtar.

357

Grammatik,

97, 39).

Such examples prove the same confusion

of these

sounds

in

Jewish

Aramaic. In late Punic, too, the

distinction between

K

and

V

was lost. In

CIS, I, 3734

$ew

hear

occurs

instead

of the ordinary

Yrb)

cf.

3716),

while in

3872

Wtp

is written for the relative pronoun ordinarily spelled

WM cf.

3852).

In Palmyrene Aramaic we have

ZpfnW

for

'pV18

(cf.

Lidzbarski,

Ephemeris,

I, 198).

In Mandaean,

though

there

are

numerous

cases in

which S

has

replaced

y

(cf.

N61deke,

Manddische

Grarnnatilc,

69ff.),

there seem

to

be few

if any

cases

in which

3

stands

for

s,

though

it sometimes

stands

for

i, thuis

>a

becomes

Z:sNP

(cf.

ibid. 60ff.).

In modern

Syriac

I

is not

distinguished

from

x,

thus

Lad

stands

for

and beside

Ace

in

the sense

of narrow ,

i;.

beside

t4t,

between

(cf.

N6ldeke,

Grammatik

der neu-

syrischen

Sprache,

60).

This confusion

is

also

found

in late

dialects

of South

Semitic.

Thus in

Tigr&,

Tigrifta,

and Amharic,

'and'

are hopelessly

con-

fused (cf.

Brockelmann,

Vergleichende

Grammatik

der

semi-

tischen

Sprachen,

pp.

124, 125).

In the

Mehri

dialect

of South

Arabia the

e

has entirely disappeared and is replaced some-

times

by

l, sometimes

by

A

and

sometimes

by : (see

Jahn,

Grammatik

der

Mliehri-Sprache

pp.

2 and

9),

Apart

from

such

confusion,

which

arose from

a weakening

of

the

pronunciation

of

Y

as the

language

decayed,

the

only

change

of which

there

seems

to

be

any trace

is

the

change

of

y

to

N

in certain

cases.

Thus

in

Syriac and

Palmyrene

p

before

another

V

was

dissimilated

to

M.

In

Syr. L

rib

became

As: In

West

Syriac,

V

before

ol

became

s;

'uhdand,

contract , became 'uhddand(cf. Brockelmann, op. cit. 241ff.,

and

N61deke,

Syriac

Grammnar,

p.

25). In

Syriac,

y

before p

is

sometimes

dissimilated

to

a,

'qlh-nd,

bracelet

becoming

'qldiid

(Brockelmanil,

p.

242).

Of

the

opposite

change

of 8

to

y

the

older

dialects

afford

no example.

Not only

is this true,

but

the

stem WNi ppears

in

South

Semitic

as

well

as North

Semitic,

where,

as in North

Semitic,-

it

is

spelled

with

S.

In

a South

Arabic inscription

X)8N

is a

goddess,

parallel

in

name as

in

functions

to

1i'%js

(cf.

Hommel, Aufsdtze und Abhandlunqen, II, 206). The occur-

rence

of

this

name

in

the

south

as well as in the north,

proves

that these

two

names,

;mrS

and

nones

were

fiom

primitive

times

philologically

and

orthographically

distinct.


5/5

358

George

A.

Barton,

[1911.

The

etymology of

Ishtar must

accordingly be

sought

in a

stem

beginning

with

p.

The

present

writer has

twice

sug-

gested such

an

etymology

(ilebraica

X, 69-71,

and

Semitic

Origins

102

if.),

deriving the

name from

the

stem

In

the

work

last referred

to

it was

suggested

that,

as

means

an

irrigating

ditch and

,3

that

which

is

watered

by

rain

alone , the

name meant

she

who

waters , or

is

watered .

I

should

have

added

as an

alternative

meaning

the

self-waterer .

A writer in the

Nation

(vol.

LXXV, p.

15),

who withheld

his

name, but whose

identity

it

is

not

difficult

to

divine, criticised

this

view

because

the

Arabic

lexicographers

assert

that

the

term

.

was applied to the

palm

tree because it

stumbled

upon the

water

necessary

to

it

and

did not need

to

be

irri-

gated .

Such

a

statement

is,

however,

not

decisive.

It

is

doubtful

whether

an

Arabian

lexicographer's

guess

as

to

the

origin of

a

custom

or

an

etymology

is

superior

to that

of

a

modern

scholar,

especially

as the

lexicographer

bears witness

in

the

same

context

(Lisan,

VI,

215),

that the term

was

applied

to

whatever

seed is

watered

by

the

water of stream

or rain (7,JLg59JZ 1+

&j

l

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