Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Kogan2011: from protSem *lišān‑ ‘tongue’.
▪ … perh. < AfrAs *les‑ ‘id.’.
▪ Acc. to Brockelmann1909 §133a the word is a n.instr. formed from a verbal basis lsn, while Bittner¹ regards it as a nomen agentis from a base *ls‑ ‘to lick’, i.e., properly *‘licker, the licking one’.
▪ In ClassAr, lisān often meant ‘(foreign) language’, a value that today is mostly rendered by ↗luġaẗ (orig. perh. s.th. like ‘the way people [not in our tribe] speak’, i.e. similar to ↗lahǧaẗ ‘way of speaking; (later also :) ‘dialect’ – art. “Luġa” (Tamás Iványi), in EALL.

1. Maximilian Bittner, “Der gemeinsemitische Ausdruck für ‘Zunge’, ein nomen agentis ”, WZKM 23 (1909): 144-150.

hist

▪ eC7 1 (tongue) Q 75:16 lā tuḥarrik bi-hī lisāna-ka li-taʕǧala bi-hī ‘[Prophet] do not move your tongue with it [Qur’anic verses as they are being revealed] in an attempt to hasten [your memorising] it’; 2 (language) Q 30:22 wa-min ʔāyāti-hī ḫalqu ’l-samawāti wa’l-ʔarḍi wa-’ḫtilāfu ʔalsinaẗi-kum wa-ʔalwāni-kum ‘and among His wonders are the creation of the heavens and earth, and the diversity of your languages and colours’; 3 (speech) Q 28:34 wa-ʔaḫī Hārūnu huwa ʔafṣaḥu min-nī lisānan ‘and my brother Aaron is more eloquent than me in speech’; 4 (repute) Q 19:50 wa-wahabnā la-hum min raḥmati-nā wa-ǧaʕalnā la-hum lisāna ṣidqin ʕaliyyan ‘and We granted them of Our grace, and bestowed on them high and true renown (or: We gave them a noble tongue of truthfulness)’
▪ Hava1899 has still also ^†lasana u (lasan) ‘to bite s.o. in words (WKAS: to abuse, revile, give s.o. a good dressing down)’; ^†lāsana, vb. III, ‘to contend in words with; (WKAS: to abuse, revile)’; ^†ʔalsana, vb. IV, ‘to relate to s.o. (the words) of, send s.o. a message from s.o. else; (WKAS:) to speak to, address s.o.’; ^†talassana, vb. V, ‘(WKAS: to be sharpened in the shape of a tongue); to flare in little tongues of flame, to blaze (fire)’; (WKAS : ^†lisn ‘language, dialect, idiom’); ^†milsan, n., ‘stone at the entrance of a trap’.

cogn

▪ Bergsträsser1928, Orel&Stolbova1994#1666, Zammit2002, Kogan2011#6.2.3.3: Akk lišānu, Ug lšn, Hbr lāšōn, Syr leššānā, Sab ls₁n, Gz ləssān, Jib εls̃έn, Mhr εwšēn, Soq léšin ‘tongue’.¹
▪ For cognates outside Sem cf. DISC below.

1. Tña mälḥas, Amh məlas < Sem *LḤS (cf. Ar ↗laḥasa). Har arrāt is from Cush – Kogan2011#6.2.3.3.

disc

▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#1666: From Sem *lišān- ‘tongue’ (so also Kogan2011). – All Sem cognates show a final vowel + -n. Evidence in non-Sem branches of AfrAs however makes it highly probable that Sem *-ān- is only a suffix. Thus, Berb words for ‘tongue’ are, e.g., Siwa elles and Kby iləs (< Berb *l˅s-), Eg has ns (Copt *les), WCh forms (of which some show a prefix *ḥa- and/or a suffix *-um- for body parts) are liis, leus, lis, lisi-m, lusu, ḍi-lis, ilmiši, ḍe-linsa, lim, limši, ʔalis, ʔaləs, and, last but not least, Hs halše, harše (< WCh *ḥa-lis-um-), CCh has eles, ɛlɛsi (< CCh *ʔ˅-lyas-, with prefix *ʔ˅-), ECh li-t, lesi, ʔilze, lɛ:s-ɛn, leese (< ECh *lyas-), and Omot mi-laso (Omot *mi-las-, prefix *mi-). Ultimately, all these forms go back to AfrAs *les- ‘tongue’.
▪ For other extensions from the root nucleus *LS- ‘tongue, to lick, bite, sting, etc.’ cf. ^†lasaba ‘to sting (bee, scorpion)’, ^†lasada i (lasd) ~ lasida a (lasad) ‘to lick (honey, a vessel)’, ↗lasaʕa ‘to sting (scorpion etc.)’, ^†lasama u (lasm) ‘to taste s.th.’, ^†lasā u (lasw) ‘to eat greedily’, as well as ↗LHS and ↗LḤS ‘to lick’.

west

–

deriv

► ʕalà lisānih, adv., from his mouth, through him
► ʕalà lisān al-ṣuḥuf, adv., through the organ of the press
► qīla ʕalà lisāni-hī mā…, expr., things were ascribed to him which…, he was rumored to have said things which…
► lisān rasmī, n., official organ
► mutaḥaddiṯ bi-lisān al-ḫāriǧiyyaẗ, n.f., a spokesman of the Foreign Ministry
► bi’l-lisān, lisānan, adv., orally, verbally
► dāra ʕalà ʔalsinaẗ al-ʕāmma wa’l-khāṣṣa, vb. I, expr., to be the talk of the town, be on everyone’s lips
► lisān al-ṯawr, n., borage (Borago officinalia; bot.)
► lisān al-ḥāl, n., the language which things themselves speak, silent language, mute expression (as distinguished from the spoken word); organ (of a party or political movement; a newspaper)
► wa-lisān ḥāli-hī yaqūlu, expr., adv., while he seemed to say…, with an expression as if he wanted to say
► lisān al-ḥamal, n., plantain (Plantago major L.; bot.)
► lisān al-ʕuṣfūr, n., common ash (Fraxinus excelsior; bot.)
► lisān al-qufl, n., bolt of the lock
► lisān al-qawm, n., spokesman (of a crowd)
► lisān al-kalb, n., hound’s-tongue (Cynoglossum; bot.); (eg.) also a variety of scorpion’s tail (Scorpiurus muricatus L.; bot.), having circinately coiled pods
► lisān al-miftāḥ, n., bit of the key
► ḏū lisānayn, n., double-tongued, deceitful, insincere, two-faced
► lisān markazī, n., official party organ (newspaper)
► lisān al-nār, pl. ʔalsinaẗ al-nīrān, n., tongue of flame

► lasina, a (lasan, lasānaẗ), vb. I, to be eloquent: denom.
► lassana, vb. II, to point, taper, sharpen (* s.th.): D-stem, denom.fig. (*to give s.th. the shape of a tongue, make look like a tongue)
► lasan, n., eloquence: vn. I.
► lasin and ʔalsanᵘ, f. lasnāʔᵘ, pl. lusn, adj., eloquent.
► lisānī, adj., oral, verbal: nsb-adj.; pl. lisāniyyāt, (Mor.) linguistics: n.abstr. in ‑iyyaẗ, pl.f.
► malsūn, n., liar: PP I (*equipped with a sharp tongue).

Permanent link

http://www2.hf.uio.no/common/apps/permlink/permlink.php?app=polyglotta&context=record&uid=da548afb-06ff-11ee-937a-005056a97067

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages

Choose display