Two Interesting Kurdish Words: "Mele" & "Some" ~ "Swimming"

[Emanoelkurdistani]

Two Interesting Kurdish Words: "Mele" & "Some" ~ "Swimming"
Soranî "mele" and Kurmancî "some" in meaning of "swimming" their other equivalents in Kurdish languages are "ajne", "aşne", "asne", etc. that are closer to their Iranian equivalents (Modern Persian "şêna", Mazandarani "şenô", Gilaki "şînû", etc.) rather than "mele" or "some". So let's concentrate on these two beautiful Kurdish words:


"Mele"

It's found in eastern Soranî sub-dialects-and probably neighbor Goranî varieties in meaning of "swim", "playing with water", "involving with water". The famous Kurdish suffix "-wan" ("baxe-wan, şerr-wan, şû-wan; Kurmancî "-van") is attached and gets "melewan" in meaning of "swimmer" and "mariner". This word is borrowed by Persian as "melevan" and only means "mariner" (since ethnic Persians cannot pronounce "w" so "melewan" turns into "melevan"; note that original Persian suffix equal to Kurdish "-v/wan" is "-ban", e.g. "baĝ-ban", "der-ban", "şe-ban", etc. the original Persian word in meaning of "mariner" is "deryaneverd"). By my outlook it seems to be akin to European "mere", "mar", "mare", "meer", "mer", etc. all in meaning of "sea", "lake", etc. with a turn of middle "-r-" into "-l-" (another examples of "-r-" > "-l-" in Kurdish: "mirîşk" > "milîşk"/"milîçk", "derya">"delya", "perre">"pele", etc.). So its original kind might be "mere" (> "mele") in meaning of "sea", "vast amount of water".


"Some"

In Kurmancî Kurdish it's found as well as some Soranî sub-dialects. "Some" accepts "-ber" so we get "so(m)ber" and "som(b)er" ~ "swimmer". It's wonderfully close to its Germanic equivalents: English "swim", German "schwimmen", Swedish "somma", etc. As far as I know the only probable root is the Indo-Germanic one and presenting another sign of the contact between the Ancient Iranians and the Germanic tribes living among them.

[Johny Bravo]

we do use in northern zazaki:

azne kerdene for "to swim".