# Arabic etymology: بركان (Vulcan?)



## Ihsiin

I'm looking for the etymology of the word بركان (_burkaan_), meaning volcano.
It occurred to me that it probably derives from Vulcan, but the l->r this would entail threw me a little.
Can anyone complete my knowledge?


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## yields

Vulcan seems possible yeah, I think it might derive from Persian though.
In the book "Arabized persian words" كتاب الألفاض الفارسية المعربة  by السيد أدى شير however I didn't find an entry for burkaan, but found one for albarrakan, which is some kind of cloth - unrelated then.


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## tFighterPilot

Well, I doubt a Volcano was ever considered a blessing, so the root ب.ر.ك doesn't seem likely to be its origin.

Is the phoneme /v/ Arabized to ب in other words?


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## Phosphorus

tFighterPilot said:


> Well, I doubt a Volcano was ever considered a blessing, so the root ب.ر.ك doesn't seem likely to be its origin.
> 
> Is the phoneme /v/ Arabized to ب in other words?



They do not have "v" represented in their alphabet since the majority of original Arab speakers were only given to pronounce "w" and not "v" (compare to "g", "ch", "p" and "zh" sounds which are lacked in original Arabic pronunciations).

I have no idea abt a "v" > "b" shift in Arabic. But I can recall some Hebrew words with "v" which are represented as "b" in Arabic, though I am not sure whether it is Hebrew that has developed original "b" into "v" or not.

"Burkan" being derived from "Volcano" sounds possible, unless for "l" > "r" development.

For the possibility of an Iranian origin I can mention famous "kan" ~ "source" and "bur" ~ "reddish; [thence] fiery" (cf. Gilaki "bur" ~ "red flames of fire"). Nonetheless I have not noticed this presumable combination, "bur+kan", in any Iranian languages-except for dialectal Kurdish "burkan" which is simply an Arabic borrowing.


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## Lugubert

A confusion r/l wouldn't be unique. In Romance languages, there are words for "tree" like arbre, arbol, albre ... What's "officially" an r in Japanese will (too) often sound like an l to me, and people of Chinese first language regularly have difficulties with languages that use l as well as r.


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## tFighterPilot

Phosphorus said:


> They do not have "v" represented in their alphabet since the majority of original Arab speakers were only given to pronounce "w" and not "v" (compare to "g", "ch", "p" and "zh" sounds which are lacked in original Arabic pronunciations).
> 
> I have no idea abt a "v" > "b" shift in Arabic. But I can recall some Hebrew words with "v" which are represented as "b" in Arabic, though I am not sure whether it is Hebrew that has developed original "b" into "v" or not.


Well, in Hebrew and Aramaic the two sounds are originally allophones of ב. If you looks at signs in Israel you'd find around 3 different Arabic spellings for Hebrew place names that contain /v/ (sometimes for the same places even). These are  ب (/b/), ف(/f/) ڤ‎ (not an official Arabic letter, but used for /v/).

This has little to do with burrowing to old Arabic burrowing from Latin languages though, unless it passed through Aramaic.


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## Abu Rashid

tFighterPilot said:


> Well, in Hebrew and Aramaic the two sounds are originally allophones of ב.



They are not originally allophones, it is an innovation that arose probably first in Aramaic, and then was borrowed into Hebrew.


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## Abu Rashid

Ihsiin said:


> but the l->r this would entail threw me a little.



In Sicilian it is vurcano, and given that Sicily was an Arabic-speaking Emirate for a period of time, that could explain the l > r.


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## fdb

burkān is evidently a fairly recent borrowing from some Italian dialect. In Sicilian the word for volcano appears as vurcanu and as vulcanu. The famous Sicilian volcano, Etna, is mentioned in classical Arabic literature, e.g. in Ibn Jubayr.


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## berndf

fdb said:


> burkān is evidently a fairly recent borrowing from some Italian dialect.


It is not evident to me. Could you be more specific what you mean by "recent"?


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## fdb

“Recent” is not actually the right word. The 10th-century historian al-Masʻūdī, in his description of Sicily, does mention jabalu l-burkān, but only as a proper name for Etna (for Sicilian vurcanu). Ibn Jubayr calls it only jabalu n-nār “fire mountain”, which is apparently the common noun for “volcano” in classical Arabic.


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## berndf

Ok, understood.


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## Phosphorus

fdb said:


> The 10th-century historian al-Masʻūdī, in his description of Sicily, does mention jabalu l-burkān, but only as a proper name for Etna (for Sicilian _vurcanu_). Ibn Jubayr calls it only jabalu n-nār “fire mountain”, which is apparently the common noun for “volcano” in classical Arabic.



Very invaluable citation. The etymology of this Arabic word is demystified now.


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## Ihsiin

tFighterPilot said:


> Is the phoneme /v/ Arabized to ب in other words?



I'm not aware of any, but /p/ is certainly Arabised to /f/, so I don't think /v/ -> /b/ is too hard to swallow.

So, in summary, we think that the word بركان probably came from Sicilian vurcanu, originally only as a proper noun for Mount Etna, but later generalised for all volcanoes.
Thanks a lot chaps.


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## aeneas dardanus

Same as the case with a known B/V shift;
The L/R liquidation is a common torsion between west and east romance languages.

Since there are no volcanoes in Arabia, or especially not active ones that we know of -  it is plausible that the word has been borrowed from eastern roman citizens of the early dark ages. Or to be more precise, in contact with Constantinople and in an already shifted form, from  [vulkan]  to    بركان (_burkan)._


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## sotos

Lugubert said:


> A confusion r/l wouldn't be unique.



It's very common in european languages and is called "rhotacism" (from the Greek letter "rho").
But even in Japan there are people who pronounce "L" where the official sound is "R".


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## aisha93

aeneas dardanus said:


> Same as the case with a known B/V shift;
> The L/R liquidation is a common torsion between west and east romance languages.
> 
> Since there are no volcanoes in Arabia, or especially not active ones that we know of -  it is plausible that the word has been borrowed from eastern roman citizens of the early dark ages. Or to be more precise, in contact with Constantinople and in an already shifted form, from  [vulkan]  to    بركان (_burkan)._



I totally agree with you. 

Because the letters : (B - M - V - W - P - F) are all pronounced by the Lips.

That's why they are substituted.
 We (Arabs) replace (p) by (b) or (f).

Concerning replacing "V" by "B", it's a very common phenomena as Spanish people mix them a lot when they speak (e.g. Por Favor > Por fabor // La vida > La bida). 

Persians do the opposite, that is replacing B by V, (e.g Daro baz kon > Daro va kon).


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## Lugubert

sotos said:


> It's very common in european languages and is called "rhotacism" (from the Greek letter "rho").
> But even in Japan there are people who pronounce "L" where the official sound is "R".


Sorry for the off topic, but also in China, there are regions where this happens: "ren" (人， man, people) may be heard (and written in Pinyin!) as "len".


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## mataripis

I know that Ellinika has word "Vulkan"  meaning volcano in English. But most people in any race are not aware what is the real meaning of the root word of Vulkan.  The Spanish word Vulcan became part of Pilipino but the Tagalog and its sister language (Dumaget)  have word  1.Bulwag   and 2.) Bulweg.From these two words the possible root word is "Bul" and both has meaning " to come out". the word "Bulwag" means to come out   but has  meaning "Hall" or stage(In the form of Bulwagan) where  speeches/presentations are shown to the people. Another word from Dumaget is "Bukan" with meaning "Flower" (literally an opening from bud to bloom). From these words  i think Vulkan has meanings 1.) Opening  and 2.) a site where something will come out or surprise presentation to the people.  I know freom far places, people like to watch the fireworks of an erupting Vulkano!


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## Alderamin

aisha93 said:


> I totally agree with you.
> 
> Because the letters : (B - M - V - W - P - F) are all pronounced by the Lips.
> 
> That's why they are substituted.
> We (Arabs) replace (p) by (b) or (f).
> 
> Concerning replacing "V" by "B", it's a very common phenomena as Spanish people mix them a lot when they speak (e.g. Por Favor > Por fabor // La vida > La bida).
> 
> Persians do the opposite, that is replacing B by V, (e.g Daro baz kon > Daro va kon).



Not only Spanish make that "mix" when speaking, and I believe it depends on the region you listen these kind of words


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