DOG
Wild Word Friday!
Few people dispute the fact that the first domesticated animal was the DOG. Anthropologists and archaeologists tell us that the DOG was common in Europe (and in Asia, too) even in Neolithic times.
We have the evidence of DOG bones in ancient village sites, but we also have evidence more subtle than that – in our words. In every modern European language, we have a word (or words) for DOG, but most of those words are unrelated to one another.
Spanish – perro – origin unknown. Irish – matad – origin unknown. Slavic – pisu – origin unknown. Old English – docga – origin unknown….Old Norwegian – bikkya – origin unknown.
In other words (pardon the lame pun!), it appears that ancient European peoples in every geographic area developed their own word for DOG and kept that word, despite the conquering influx of Indo-European peoples (the blue-eyed blond proto-Viking-types) 6,000 or so years ago. That means the ownership of DOGs occurred very early in European history. Pretty neat, eh?
So, my DOG’s name is Wofgang (misspelling intentional). Tell me about your DOG.
Blessings!
Sue
Hi Sue, Neil and Wolfgang,
We have 2 dogs: Buddy, an 8 year old yellow lab, who is everyone’s friend and pal, and sheds terribly. And Autumn, a German shorthair who is almost a year and a half old. She is officially our youngest son’s dog, has selective hearing, and loves to race through the woods.
We enjoy them.
Labs are such friendly dogs! Years ago my husband’s parents had a black lab (Charlie) who is still considered one of the family’s all time best dogs. Friends of our have German shorthairs, talk about beautiful dogs. Wow!