loss (‘zero grade’) in unaccented syllables: nominative *dhég
h
o ̄m, locative
dhg
h
ém, genitive dhgˆhmés. Forms with the full grade of the root (*dhégh
-) are
found only in Anatolian, as in Hittite de ̄ ́gan (written te-e-kan). In MIE, it
seems, only forms with the zero grade of the root were continued, with
the awkward initial cluster [dh
gh] generally suffering metathesis and/or
simplification:
- Without metathesis: (a) unsimplified, Tocharian A tkam
̇
; (b) simplified,
Tocharian B kem
̇
, Avestan zå (locative zemi, genitive zəmo ̄), Greek γα4α
(< *gm
̊
-ya),^31 χαμα‘on the earth’, Phrygian zem-elo-‘earthling, human’,
Old Church Slavonic zemlya (< proto-Slavonic *zem-ya ̄), Old Prussian same,
semme ̄, Lithuanian zˇe ̃me ̇, Latin hum-us, Albanian dhe.^32
- With metathesis: (a) unsimplified, Vedic ks
̇
ám-, Greek χθ.ν, Pisidian(?)
Γδαν, Gaulish (De ̄vo)χdon-ion; (b) simplified, Old Irish dú (genitive don).
In the MIE languages the word is regularly feminine. In Hittite it is neuter,
but this is explained by its assimilation to the class of neuter n-stems.^33
Originally we may assume that it belonged to the animate gender and was
capable of being treated as an active being, a divinity. Historically the goddess
Earth is well attested. Sometimes she is named with a direct reflex of
*Dhe
gho ̄m, sometimes this is extended by means of a personalizing suffix, and
sometimes it is replaced by a different appellation.
In Hittite the neuter de ̄ ́gan is personalized as Daganzipas. The added
element comes from a proto-Hattic suffixsˇe p a or sˇipa, denoting genius.^34
In the Rigveda ks
̇
ám- is normally used only for the physical earth, while
the goddess is called Pr
̇
thivı ̄ or Pr
̇thvı ̄, the Broad One. But the dvandva
compound dya ̄ ́va ̄ks
̇
a ̄ ́ma ̄‘heaven and earth’ is sometimes used in passages
where the pair are personified (1. 121. 11, 140. 13; 3. 8. 8; 8. 18. 16;
- 1).
In Greece the goddess Earth is usually Gaia or Ge, but she can also be
referred to as Χθ.ν (Aesch. Eum. 6, fr. 44. 1; [Aesch.] Prom. 205; Eur. Hel.
40). The suffixed form Χθον-η was used by Pherecydes of Syros to denote
the primal goddess who later became Ge, and by a poet writing under the
name of Musaeus (2 B 11 Diels–Kranz) for the oracular goddess at Delphi,
otherwise identified as Ge. The fertility goddess Damia who had a cult in
parts of the Peloponnese, Aegina, and Thera possibly represents another
form of the name, taken from a substrate language, with a similar suffix,
- 1).
(^31) L. Hertzenberg in Mayrhofer et al. (1974), 96, who supposes the Greeks to have taken this
over from a substrate or adstrate language, the inherited Greek form being χθ.ν.
(^32) From *gho ̄-, according to E. Hamp, Minos 9 (1968), 199.
(^33) Schindler (as n. 30), 195. Luwian tiyammi- and Hieroglyphic Luwian takami- are animate.
(^34) J. Tischler in W. Meid–H. Ölberg–H. Schmeja, Sprachwissenschaft in Innsbruck (Innsbruck
1982), 223, 230 n. 10.
174 4. Sky and Earth