Subject: summary : borrowing of body part terms

many moons ago i posted a query regarding the borrowing of certain body part terms , notably , heart , eye , ear , and tongue , and never posted a summary ( tsk , tsk ) . here it is : first of all , i have been able to find , either through linguist or from other sources , clear examples of almost all the basic body part terms , including ' hand ' ( many iranian languages from persian , ossetic from chechen - ingush ) , ' heart ' ( polish from czech , many indo - aryan and iranian languages from persian , turkish from arabic ) , ' tongue ' ( a whole bunch of ethiopian languages ) , and so on . the one for which i have no completely clearly documented example is ' ear ' ( although there are cases of ' ear ' being replaced by a neologism from within the language itself ) . * * i am thus still looking for an example of borrowing involving the word for ' ear ' . * * a discussion of the whole question of borrowability of body part terms and its relation to language classification ( esp . with reference to the altaic question ) will appear in a paper by alexander vovin and me to appear next year in the zeitschrift der deutschen morgelandischen gesellschaft . finally , i would like to summarize the information provided by those who responded to my original query on linguist , to all of whom my deepest thanks : shirley silver ( silver @ sonoma . edu ) reported that mary haas , having reconstructed proto - hokan ' ear ' ( and ' navel ' ) noted that one could find or reconstruct similar forms in other language families ( penutian , yuki , and the algic languages wiyot & yurok ) , which would seem to suggest borrowing . this is the closest i have come so far to a borrowed ' ear ' . benjamin moore ( ben @ edr5r . edr . co . jp ) reports that in modern japanese , the term for animal tongue used as food is ' tan ' a borrowing of english ' tongue . ' david costa ( dcosta @ garnet . berkeley . edu ) and george aaron broadwell ( g . broadwell @ albany . edu ) note that choctaw _ nishkin _ ' eye ' ( and according to costa other forms in western muskogean ( chickasaw & choctaw , + mobilian jargon ) , are from some algonquian source ( note proto - algonquian * _ ne $ ki : n $ ekwi _ ) , a suggestion which i have found goes back at least to mary haas . however , i should add that ives goddard , whom i asked about this , expressed strong doubt about any such connection . bruce connell ( connellb @ vax . ox . ac . uk ) reported that ' heart ' in usaghade ( lower cross < benue - congo ) is apparently borrowed from a neighbouring bantu language , with semantic shift . tone marking omitted , usaghade ebuma , ' heart ' proto - bantu * - bumo , 's tomach ' . jakob dempsey ( jakob @ u . washington . edu ) reported that the common word for ' tongue ' in standard chinese and in hmong - mien languages ( generally speaking ) [ hm = miao - yao ] is very likely related , suggesting borrowing , since these languages are not considered genetically linked . norbert strade < lingnost @ hum . aau . dk > reported that the finnish word for " neck " , " kaula " , is borrowed from baltic . cynthia vakareliyska ( vakarel @ oregon . uoregon . edu ) pointed that some slavists believe that the russian word for ' eye ' ( _ glaz _ ) is borrowed from germany . ( i have been slowly tracing the origin of this opinion , which appears to be in error , but have not yet gotten all the way to the bottom of it . in my view the correct etymology , which is given by several authorities , is a shift in meaning of the native word for 's tone ' , ' boulder ' or the like ) . references from the above : connell , b . ( in press ) the role of language contact in the development of usaghade . to appear in sugia ( sprache und geschichte in afrika ) 16 or 17 , special issue on ' language contact and historical change ' . haas , mary r . 1964 . california hokan . in studies in californian linguistics . william bright , ed . university of california publications in linguistics 34 : 73-87 . jacob , betty ; t . dale nicklas ; and betty lou spencer . 1977 . introduction to choctaw . durant , ok : choctaw bilingual education program , southeastern oklahoma state university .
