{"id":55106,"date":"2022-06-25T17:22:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T22:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=55106"},"modified":"2022-07-08T06:28:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T11:28:41","slug":"sino-semitica-of-cinnamon-cassia-and-katsura-and-old-sinitic-reconstructions-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=55106","title":{"rendered":"Sino-Semitica: of cinnamon, cassia, and katsura and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you stroll through the grounds of the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, you may come upon this phenomenal tree:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is the\u00a0champion<\/a>\u00a0katsura tree of the state of Pennsylvania, truly an astonishing specimen.<\/p>\n

From reading Japanese literature, I was familiar with the name \"katsura\", but I didn't know the equivalent in Chinese or English, and I didn't know what it looked like.\u00a0 When Zihan Guo told me that the kanji for katsura is \u6842, I was stunned, because it immediately called to mind some exciting discussions about that plant that we had had on Language Log over the years (see below).<\/p>\n

katsura<\/b><\/p>\n

\u304b\u3064\u3089 \/ \u30ab\u30c4\u30e9 \u6842<\/p>\n

Wiktionary<\/a><\/p>\n

Cinnamomum cassia<\/i><\/p>\n

Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

…\u00a0Chinese cassia<\/b>\u00a0or\u00a0Chinese cinnamon<\/b>, is an\u00a0evergreen\u00a0tree originating in southern China, and widely cultivated there and elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia (India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam). It is one of several species of\u00a0Cinnamomum<\/i>\u00a0used primarily for their aromatic bark, which is used as a\u00a0spice. The buds are also used as a spice, especially in India, and were once used by the ancient Romans.<\/p>\n

See \"Sino-Semitica: of gourds, cassia, and hemp and Old Sinitic reconstructions<\/a>\" (2\/1\/20), where I introduced an old, learned German friend named\u00a0Elfriede Regina (Kezia) Knauer<\/a>\u00a0(1926-2010) who was very much aware of the Semitic origins of her nickname (Kezia is a biblical name of Hebrew origin; she was one of Job's three beautiful daughters) and often asked me about its Sinitic parallels (see\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0Hebrew<\/a>\u00a0\u05e7\u05b0\u05e6\u05b4\u05d9\u05e2\u05b8\u05d4<\/a><\/em>\u200e (\u201ccassia tree\u201d). Compare\u00a0cassia<\/a><\/em>. From\u00a0Latin<\/a>\u00a0cassia<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(\u201ccinnamon\u201d), from\u00a0Ancient Greek<\/a>\u00a0\u03ba\u03b1\u03c3\u03c3\u03af\u03b1<\/a>,\u00a0\u03ba\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03b1<\/a>,\u00a0\u03ba\u03ac\u03c3\u03b9\u03b1<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(kass\u00eda, kas\u00eda, k\u00e1sia), from\u00a0Hebrew<\/a>\u00a0\u05e7\u05b0\u05e6\u05b4\u05d9\u05e2\u05b8\u05d4<\/a><\/em>\u200e (q\u0259\u1e63\u012b\u02bf\u0101), from\u00a0Aramaic<\/a>\u00a0\u05e7\u05b0\u05e6\u05b4\u05d9\u05e2\u05b2\u05ea\u05b8\u05d0<\/a><\/em>\u200e (q\u0259\u1e63\u012b\u02bf\u0103t\u0101), from\u00a0\u05e7\u05b0\u05e6\u05b7\u05e2<\/a><\/em>\u200e (q\u1e63a\u02bf, \u201cto cut off\u201d) (source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

That \"Sino-Semitica\" post provides many other references, including this addendum by John Huehnergard [2\/17\/20]:<\/p>\n

Hebrew\u00a0q\u01dd\u1e63i\u0295\u0101<\/em>\u00a0is unlikely to refer to\u00a0Cinnamomum cassia<\/em>, but rather to a plant found in Ethiopia or Arabia; a recent discussion of the Hebrew word is Benjamin J. Noonan,\u00a0Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bibl<\/em>e (2019) 196-97 (who, along the way, refutes a proposed Chinese etymology for\u00a0q\u01dd\u1e63i\u0295\u0101<\/em>). As Noonan also rightly notes, the word is not found in Aramaic apart from Jewish sources referring to the Hebrew word, so it's not a real Aramaic word.<\/p>\n

Also see this key\u00a0comment<\/a>\u00a0by Chris Button (cf.\u00a0here<\/a>,\u00a0here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

My take is that labiovelars alternating with velars provides evidence for uvulars in Old Chinese. A nice xiesheng series in that regard is that of \u572d EMC kw\u025bj < OC *q\u00e1j which includes unrounded words like \u8857 ka\u0268j < *kr\u00e1j and also has \u6842 kw\u025bj\u02b0 < *q\u00e1js which quite possibly came from earlier *qj\u00e1ts via an association with Hebrew qetsia \"cassia\" with its uvular onset.<\/p>\n

To which I\u00a0repl<\/a>ied<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I like what you say about Old Sinitic \"\u6842 kw\u025bj\u02b0 < *q\u00e1js which quite possibly came from earlier *qj\u00e1ts via an association with Hebrew qetsia 'cassia'\". I had a learned old German friend, Elfriede Regina Knauer, whose nickname was Kezia (pronounced \"Ketzia\"), and she always suspected that it had something to do with Sinitic gu\u00ec \u6842: 1. osmanthus; sweet osmanthus 2. cassia; Chinese cinnamon quotations \u25b2 \u8499\u820d\u883b\u4ee5\u6912\u3001\u8591\u3001\u6842\u548c\u70f9\u800c\u98f2\u4e4b\u3002[Classical Chinese, trad.] \u8499\u820d\u86ee\u4ee5\u6912\u3001\u59dc\u3001\u6842\u548c\u70f9\u800c\u996e\u4e4b\u3002[Classical Chinese, simp.] From: Tang Dynasty, Fan Chuo, Manshu, chapter 7, part 7 M\u00e9ngsh\u00e8 M\u00e1n y\u01d0 ji\u0101o, ji\u0101ng, gu\u00ec h\u00e9 p\u0113ng \u00e9r y\u01d0n zh\u012b. [Pinyin] The Mengshe Barbarians use pepper, ginger, and cinnamon to boil as a drink. 3. true cinnamon; Saigon cinnamon; Indonesian cinnamon 4. laurel; bay laurel 5. of or relating to Guilin, Guangxi, or the region of the Gui River 6. A surname\u200b. (source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The thrill of seeing that enormous, grand, spreading\u00a0katsura<\/i>\u00a0tree in Morris Arboretum — a type of tree that thitherto I had imagined to be a rather delicate, scraggly bush — was one that I shall never forget.<\/p>\n

Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\n