July theme: Miscellaneous 🔨

Introduction

For 2017-07-07, I just had to do "seven".

It may seems strange to see the word for "seven" borrowed around between so many different language families, when the numbers 1-10 are so highly conserved in descendants of (post-Anatolian) Proto-Indo-European. But 10-based number systems seem to not go back as far as you would think. There is evidence that PIE had only recent transitioned from a 5-based to a 10-based number system around the reconstruction period. Circumstantial, but suggestive en masse.

Updated 2024-02-24: Updated for the occasion of the 7 year anniversary of Word Family Friday!

Teaser

seven, September, Hephthalite

Full Text

• Afro-Asiatic *sṗɣ

  • Tamazight *saβ

    • Guanche sa(t) seven
    • Northern Tamazight

      • Kabyle sebea seven
      • Atlas Tamazight

        • Central Atlas Tamazight ⵙⴰ sa seven
        • Tashelhit sa seven
      • Zenati

        • Tarifit sa seven
    • Tuareg essa seven
  • Egyptian sfḫw seven

    • Demotic Egyptian sáfxe seven

      • Coptic ϣⲁϣϥ šašf seven
  • Semitic *š-b-ʕ-(tu-)

    • Central Semitic

      • Old Arabic

        • Safaitic Old Arabic 𐪊𐪈𐪒 sabʿ⁠ seven
        • Arabic سَبْع sabʿ seven
        • Maltese sebgħa seven
        • Swahili saba seven
      • Northwest Semitic

        • Aramaic 𐡔𐡁𐡏

          • Classical Syriac ܫܲܒ݂ܥܵܐ šaḇʿā seven
        • Canaanite

          • Hebrew שֶׁבַע
          • Phoenician 𐤔𐤁𐤏‬ šbʻ seven

            • Punic 𐤔𐤁𐤏𐤕⁩ šbʻt seven
        • Ugaritic 𐎌𐎁𐎓𐎚 šbʿt seven
    • East Semitic

      • Akkadian 𒐌 šibit seven

        • Proto-Kartvelian *šwid

          • Georgian შვიდი švidi seven
    • South Semitic

      • Ethiopic

        • Amharic ሰባት säbat seven
        • Geʿez ሰብዐቱ säbʿätu seven
        • Tigrinya ሸውዓተ šäwʿatä seven
    • Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥ seven

      • Albanian shtatë seven
      • Anatolian

        • Hittite *šipta?

          • Hittite šiptamiya name of a drink: seventh?, made of seven (ingredients)? ^[1]
      • Old Armenian եաւթն eawtʿn seven

        • Armenian յոթ yotʿ seven ^[4]
      • Balto-Slavic *septim

        • Baltic

          • East Baltic

            • Lithuanian septyni seven
        • Slavic *setь seven
        • Uralic *śäjćem ^[2]

          • Finnic *säic'en seven

            • Finnish seitsemän seven
            • Estonian seitse seven
          • Permic

            • Komi-Permyak сизим sizim seven
          • Samic *čiečëm

            • Northern Sami čieža seven
          • Ugric *säptɜ ^[2]

            • Hungarian hét seven
      • Pre-Celtic *seɸtam

        • Celtic *sextam seven

          • Brythonic *seiθ seven

            • Breton seizh seven
            • Welsh saith seven
          • Gaulish sextam seven
          • Old Irish secht seven

            • Irish seacht seven
      • Germanic *sebun seven

        • East Germanic

          • Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌱𐌿𐌽 sibun seven
          • Crimean Gothic sevene seven
        • North Germanic

          • Old Norse sjau seven

            • Danish syv seven
            • Icelandic sjö seven
        • West Germanic *sebun seven

          • Old English seofon seven

            • Middle English seven

              • English seven
              • Scots seiven seven
              • Yola zeven seven
            • Old English seofontiġ seventy

              • Middle English seventy

                • English seventy
          • Frankish

            • Dutch zeven seven
          • Old High German sibun seven

            • German sieben seven
            • Yiddish זיבן zibn seven
      • Hellenic *heptə́

        • Classical Greek ἑπτά heptá seven

          • English hepta-

            • English hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon
          • Greek εφτά eftá seven

            • Romani efta seven

              • Romani eftavardeś seventy
          • Classical Greek ἑπτάγωνον heptágōnon polygon with seven sides
      • Indo-Iranian *saptá

        • Indo-Aryan

          • Sanskrit 𑀲𑀧𑁆𑀢𑀦𑁆 saptán seven

            • Elu

              • Sinhala හත hata seven
            • Magadhi

              • Bengali সাত sat seven
            • Maharashtri

              • Marathi
            • Sauraseni

              • Hindustani

                • Hindi सात sāt seven
              • Pahari

                • Punjabi ਸੱਤ satta seven
              • Pali

                • Malay sapta seven
        • Iranian

          • Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬞𐬙𐬀 hapta seven
          • Northern Iranian

            • Scythian

              • Ossetian авд avd seven
            • Sogdian *heβta

              • Sogdian *heβtalīt

                • Bactrian ηβοδαλο (h)ebodalo endonym: Hepthalites

                  • Byzantine Greek Ἐφθαλῖται Hephthalitae

                    • English Hephthalite
          • Pashto اوه uwë seven
          • Western Iranian

            • Kurdish heft
            • Old Persian

              • Persian هفت haft seven
      • Italic *septəm seven

        • Oscan 𐌔𐌄𐌚𐌕𐌄𐌍 seften seven
        • Latin septem seven

          • Central Romance

            • Italian sette seven
          • Eastern Romance

            • Romanian șapte seven
          • Insular Romance

            • Sardinian sette seven
          • Western Romance

            • French sept seven
            • Spanish siette seven
          • English sept-
          • Latin septentrio Seven-Plow, the Big or Little Dippers, the north

            • Latin septentrionalis northern
            • Italian settentrione north
      • Tocharian

        • Arshian ṣpät seven
        • Kushean ṣukt seven
        • Samoyedic *säjkwə ^[2]

          • Nenets сиˮив siqiw seven
      • Proto-Indo-European *septm̥mós seventh

        • Balto-Slavic *septmas seventh

          • Baltic

            • East Baltic

              • Old Lithuanian sẽkmas seventh
            • West Baltic

              • Old Prussian septmas seventh
          • Slavic *sedmъ seventh

            • East Slavic семъ semŭ

              • Ukrainian сьомий sʹomyj seven
            • South Slavic

              • Old Church Slavonic ⱄⰵⰴⰿⱏ sedmŭ seventh

                • Bulgarian седми sedmi seventh
                • Russian седьмой sedʹmoj seventh
              • Serbo-Croatian седми sedmi seventh
            • West Slavic

              • Czech sedmý seventh
              • Polish siódmy seventh
            • Slavic *sedmь seven backformed, replacing *setь

              • East Slavic семь semĭ

                • Russian семь semʹ seven
                • Ukrainian сім sim seven
              • South Slavic

                • Old Church Slavonic ⱄⰵⰴⰿⱐ sedmĭ

                  • Bulgarian седем sedem seven
                • Serbo-Croatian седам sedam seven
              • West Slavic

                • Czech sedm seven
                • Polish siedem seven
        • Hellenic *heptəmós seventh

          • Classical Greek ἕβδομος hébdomos seventh
        • Indo-Iranian *saptamás seventh

          • Indo-Aryan *saptamás seventh

            • Sanskrit 𑀲𑀧𑁆𑀢𑀫 saptamá seventh
          • Iranian *haptamáh seventh

            • Northern Iranian

              • Saka

                • Khotani 𑀳𑁄𑀤𑀫 hodama seventh
              • Scythian

                • Ossetian ӕвдӕм ævdæm seventh
            • Western Iranian

              • Old Persian

                • Persian هفتم haftom seventh
        • Italic *septemos seventh

          • Italic *Septemos personal name: Seventh, September?

            • Umbrian 𐌔𐌄𐌕𐌖𐌌𐌔 Setums
            • Latin Septimus
          • Italic *septemo-mēnzris seventh month, September

            • Latin *septem(o)-mēmbris seventh month

              • Latin september September ^[3]

                • Central Romance

                  • Italian settembre September
                • Western Romance

                  • Old French setembre September
                  • Spanish setiembre September (dialectal)

                    • Spanish septiembre September
                • Spanish septiembre September
                • French septembre September
                • Old English September

                  • Middle English Septembre

                    • English September ^[3]
                • Arabic سبتمبر sibtimbir September
                • Greek Σεπτέμβριος Septémvrios September
                • Latin -ber

                  • Latin Octōber October

                    • Central Romance

                      • Italian ottobre October
                    • Western Romance

                      • Old French oitovre October
                      • Old Spanish ochubre October

                        • Spanish octubre October
                    • Spanish octubre October
                    • Albanian tetor October
                    • Koine Greek Ὀκτώβριος Oktṓbrios October

                      • Greek Οκτώβριος Októvrios October
                      • Old Armenian հոկտեմբեր hoktember October

                        • Armenian հոկտեմբեր hoktember October
                      • Old Church Slavonic октѧбрь oktębrĭ October

                        • Old East Slavic октѧбрь oktębrĭ October

                          • Russian октябрь oktjabrʹ October
                        • Romanian octombrie October
                    • Old French octobre October

                      • French octobre October
                      • Middle English October October

                        • English October

                          • Hawaiʻian ʻOkakopa October
      • Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥dḱomt seventy

        • Celtic *sextamākonts seventy

          • Old Irish sechtmoga seventy

            • Irish seachtó seventy
        • Italic *septməkentā

          • Latin septuāgintā seventy
        • Tocharian

          • Kushean ṣutaṅka seventy
    • Etruscan 𐌔𐌄𐌌𐌘 semf a number: either seven, eight, or nine

Visual

Collected English words

Hephthalite, sept-, seven, seventy, hepta-, hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon

Footnotes

1. ^

   In Hittite, "seven" is written with as the sumerogram (cuneiform logogram) 𒅓, and (like all other numbers above 4) never appears spelled out in phonetic form. But a word for "seven" may reflected in the Hittite drink šiptamiya, which could mean either "seventh" or "made of seven (ingredients)".

2. ^

   Reconstructing Finno-Ugric for "seven" comes up with slightly different answers from different descendant languages: *śäjćem, *śićem, or *śäćem. It's a strong possibility that the Indo-European words for seven were borrowed on several different occassions in different forms.

3. ^

   People often conflate the off-by-two phenomenon in Roman month names (September is 9th, October is 10th, etc.) with the fact that July and August are named after the emperors Julius and Augustus Caesar, and attribute the off by two to inserting those two months. In fact, those months were renamed, not added, and used to be called Quintilis and Sextilis.

   (Compare common Roman masculine names which include Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, Nonus, and Decimus—but not names based on 1-4.)

   The mismatch is actually because the year originally began at the beginning of spring, with March. Classical Roman sources describe a legendary 10 month year before January and February were added, and that the approximately two month period of winter was originally not part of any month; but there is no evidence of this other than the stories the Romans told hundreds of years later. It may instead be that there were two months in that time at originally at the end of the year, then the beginning of the year was moved back putting them at the beginning. Those months may or may not have been renamed in the process.

4. ^

   Armenian յոթ yotʿ calls to mind Proto-Turkic *yẹti: "seven"; whose descendants include things like Chuvash śiččĕ or Yakut sette. It's not impossible that it's descended from Pre-Armenian, or some other—possibly unattested—IE branch.