Analysing the etymology of the term �cha� :: Mmegi Online

Last week we explained the primordial roots of the universal term ‘sha’ (burn), after having traced its first known written use to ancient Mesopotamian times. We also hinted that the term appears in two basic forms in many of their ancient texts: as sha and cha and that, even today, the Tswana language prefers sha while the Sotho language goes with cha for the verb ‘burn’. This week, we concentrate on the variation cha.

I consider a term to be ‘universal’ if there is evidence that it was, and still is, widely used across language families that are not supposed to be ‘genetically’ related.

My formal name for such a term is ‘proto-term’. According to Genesis 11, such a protolanguage did in fact exist but was deliberately scrambled by God (or rather by gods, in older ancient texts) during the failed Babel tower project in Shin’ar (Sumer), with the result that people began not to understand each other. I then presented a historical corroboration of that in the Sumerian text Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta (Enmerkar is a historically attested king of Erech/Uruk.

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