Deciphering the ancient names of animals (Part 2)

This week, we consider the names of more animals, but mainly concentrating on domestic animals.

The ancient, generic term for ‘animal’ – also reflected in Sumerian, the oldest written language – is GU. This transliterates as ‘goo’ (‘a thing’) in Setswana. Although ‘go-o’ (as in ‘goo mo’: ‘this thing’) now sounds like an abbreviation of ‘golo’ (as in ‘golo mo’), the latter is a composite term comprised of the Sumerian terms GU (‘thing/ creature’) and LU (this). Indeed, LU/LO as meaning ‘this’ is retained as a term applicable to a greater variety of object names in Nguni languages, e.g. ‘lo mtwana’ (‘this child’) is strictly ‘ngwana yo’ in Setswana. In Sotho and Setswana, ‘this’ now varies greatly according to the initial consonant, thus: logong lo (this log), ntlo e (this house), setlhare se (this tree), etc.