# Wine



## rushalaim

Latin _"vinum"_ and English _"wine"_. 
Hebrew יין [_yayin_] _"wine"_ lost its [w] in the beginning of the word, like Aramaic/Arabic ולד [_walda_] _"infant"_ later turned into Hebrew ילד [_yeled_].

1. Is _"wine"_ PIE?
2. Did Hebrew adopt _"wine"_ PIE-word later from Latin?


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## utopia

I think I read somewhere that Hebrew had adopted this word from Greek.

Not sure, though.


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## fdb

The word for wine/vine occurs across Indo-European and Semitic, including Arabic wayn, and Sabaic WYN. It is generally believed that it is culture word which spread with the product across the languages of the Near East and the Mediterranean basin.


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## berndf

rushalaim said:


> Did Hebrew adopt _"wine"_ PIE-word later from Latin?


יין is too old for a Latin loan. It occurs already in the Torah. The merger of Pe-Waw and Pe-Yod words in their root forms (Qal perfect) is a common feature of Canaanite languages. The initial /w/ is also lost in Ugaritic.


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## CyrusSH

fdb said:


> The word for wine/vine occurs across Indo-European and Semitic, including Arabic wayn, and Sabaic WYN. It is generally believed that it is culture word which spread with the product across the languages of the Near East and the Mediterranean basin.



Do you mean all IE languages or just some western ones?


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## berndf

CyrusSH said:


> Do you mean all IE languages or just some western ones?


Almost all Mediterranean and Middle Eastern languages, not just IE ones. A typical Wanderwort.


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## CyrusSH

Gothic _wein_ is more similar to Arabic _wayn_ than Latin _vinum_.


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## berndf

CyrusSH said:


> Gothic _wein_ is more similar to Arabic _wayn_ than Latin _vinum_.


Early Common Germanic loan from Latin, e.g. before <v>=/w/ to <v>=/v/ shift in Latin.


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## CyrusSH

berndf said:


> Early Common Germanic loan from Latin, e.g. before <v>=/w/ to <v>=/v/ shift in Latin.



What about Latin _i_ to Gothic _ei_?


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## sound shift

The Georgian word for "wine" is "gvino". I'm not sure if that proves anything, but the production of wine in Georgia goes back a very long way.


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## berndf

CyrusSH said:


> What about Latin _i_ to Gothic _ei_?


Purely orthographic to distinguish a long _i_ (spelled _ei*_; probably because Greek _ει_ was at the time pronounced [i:]) from a short _i _(spelled _i*_).
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*Transcribed because Gothic fonts don't work here.


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## berndf

rushalaim said:


> Did Hebrew adopt _"wine"_ PIE-word later from Latin?


Did you maybe mean ווײַן? That is not Hebrew. That is Yiddish.


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## rushalaim

As if, there is modern Israeli male name _"Inon"_. Maybe, that is Hebrew transcription of Greek [_oinos_] _"wine"_? Greek _"oin-os"_ and Latin _"vin-um"_. 
Talmud says similar יינן [_inon_].


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## berndf

A _יינן_ is a _wine maker_.


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## rushalaim

I cannot see any _"vineyard"_ in Pentateuch, just כרם _"well-cultivated plot"_, and there is כרם זית _"oliveyard"_ along with כרם יין _"vineyard"_.
Aramaic also doesn't have any _"wine"_ but only _"alcohol"_ words: חמרא and שכרא [shikra] Greek transliterated like σίκερα [sikera].
Alcohol in the Bible - Wikipedia


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## berndf

Aramaic has (חמר(א meaning _wine_ in general. I am not sure if this is only Judeo-Aramaic or more general.


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## Ihsiin

fdb said:


> including Arabic wayn



Really? I've never come across this word - the only words I know for wine are خمر and شراب.


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## fdb

Ihsiin said:


> Really? I've never come across this word - the only words I know for wine are خمر and شراب.



wayn is a rare word, but it is in the mediaeval lexica. Lisān al-ʻarab cites Ibn al-Aʻrābī as saying that it means “black grapes” العنب الأسود.


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## fdb

berndf said:


> Aramaic has (חמר(א meaning _wine_ in general. I am not sure if this is only Judeo-Aramaic or more general.



The pan-Aramaic word for “wine” is ḥamrā. yayin is used only in Jewish texts and is evidently a Hebrew loan.


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## rushalaim

Ihsiin said:


> Really? I've never come across this word - the only words I know for wine are خمر and شراب.


Arabic خمر maybe corresponds to Aramaic חמרא [hamra] _"something fermented"_.


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