Soil is മണ്ണ്. Smell is മണം. Is there a common etymology?
It turns out that both words come from the same root, മണക്കുക to smell.
മണമുള്ളത് മണ്ണ് = Soil is that which smells.
It sounds artificial - until you look into Indian Rhetoric theory (തർക്കശാസ്ത്രം).
Accoring to തർക്കശാസ്ത്രം, earth (പൃഥിവി) is chrarcterized as the substance or material that is differentiated by means of smell: തത്ര ഗന്ധവതീ പൃഥിവി.
I am not sure which came first - the word മണ്ണ് that inspired the characterization or the characterization that inspired the name.
What do you think?
It turns out that both words come from the same root, മണക്കുക to smell.
മണമുള്ളത് മണ്ണ് = Soil is that which smells.
It sounds artificial - until you look into Indian Rhetoric theory (തർക്കശാസ്ത്രം).
Accoring to തർക്കശാസ്ത്രം, earth (പൃഥിവി) is chrarcterized as the substance or material that is differentiated by means of smell: തത്ര ഗന്ധവതീ പൃഥിവി.
I am not sure which came first - the word മണ്ണ് that inspired the characterization or the characterization that inspired the name.
What do you think?
The word 'mana' appears only in Tamil and Malayalam according to this dictionary which is interesting. But I think there are many noun-verb pairings in Dravidian languages. I'm comfortable only with Kannada so I'll restrict myself to that language.
ReplyDeletekannu -> kaanu (eye - see)
kai -> key (hand - do) => this is observed in archaic Kannada, now 'maadu' is used instead. Malayalam/Telugu have 'chey'. The verb form shows k>ch sound change between Kannada and Malayalam. Wonder, why the noun didn't change similarly.
Probably,
moogu -> moosu (nose - smell)
Sorry for the late response (I didn't see this comment was queued up for moderation.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. I am curious, what is the Kannada word for smell? I don't know Kannada but I would guess 'gandha' or similar would be one, but what I am curious is if there is a more native Kannada word.