On the etymology of Nepali jhyāl

Boyd Michailovsky (1)

1 LACITO - Langues et civilisations à tradition orale

The etymology of Nepali jhyāl 'window' has long been disputed. Some lexicographers — but not Sir R. L. Turner — have proposed the source as Sanskrit (and Nepali) jāla 'net', because of the resemblance of lattice-windows to nets. In the present article, Nepali jaskel/jaskelo 'side-door, window' is proposed as a more likely source, both phonetically and semantically. The origin of jaskelo remains unknown.

L'étymologie du mot népali jhyāl 'fenêtre' a été l'objet de vives controverses. Certains lexicologues ont proposé comme source le mot sanskrit (et népali) jāla 'filet', arguant de la ressemblance entre fenêtres treillagées et filets. Le mot népali jaskel/jaskelo 'porte cochère, fenêtre' semble plus vraisemblable. L'origine de jaskelo est inconnue.

Mots clés: langue népali; langues indo-aryennes; "fenêtre"

Mots clés: Nepali language; Indo-Aryan languages; 'window'; etymology; window

Domaines: Linguistique

Boyd Michailovsky. On the etymology of Nepali jhyāl. Nepalese Linguistics, 2009, 24, pp.165-168. ⟨halshs-00438418⟩