bhakti- etc

[Yaroslav V. Vassilkov]

Dear Mark,
        sorry, but I fail to see any historico-semantic or phonetic
correlation between Turkic *bogha*, *bugha*, *buga* - and Iranian / Slavic
derivatives of IE *bhag. Or the Mordovian *pas /paz/ pavas* (< Volgo-Permian
*paghas < IIr *bhagas). If you mean that common Russian / Slavic *bog- is to
be traced to Turkic *bogha*, I can not agree with you, because this Turkic
word has really been borrowed into (Southern) Russian and Ukranian, but in
the form of *bugaj* 'bull', which is phonetically quite correct. But the word
*bog could never represent Turkic *bogha / bugha / buga, while it reflects quite
correctly Iranian *bhaga* >*bag/a/.* (Slavic *o* regularly corresponds to
Iranian *a*). What is equally important (besides phonetic similiarity /
identity of Slavic and IIr words) is full coincidence of all aspects of
their meaning, their "semantic field" (in both cases "lot; share; good luck,
happiness; god of good luck/destiny; god in general").
     And why Turkic word for a "bull" should appear in other languages with the
meaning "God"? Can you refer to any language where the word meaning "bull"
acquired eventually meaning "god" or "(monotheistic) God"?
        If I misunderstood you, please correct me.
        All the best,
                                      Yaroslav Vassilkov

>Yaroslav V. Vassilkov wrote:

>> n. 'lot, share', m. 'god'; New Persian bag- 'god'. The element representing
>> the form *bahta- has been found in some Scythian names from North Pontic
>> Steppes. Russian and even common Pra-Slavic *bog "(happy) lot", "share",
>> "destiny", "god", "God" - is most probably a loanword from an Iranian
>> (*Indo-Iranian?) source (formally and semantically it is the closest parallel
>> to Skt bhaga/Bhaga and Av. baga-). The same word, but in its Indo-Iranian
>> form *bhaga-s, was borrowed by the Volga Finns (Mordovian-Erzja *paz*, *pas*
>> 'god' Mordovian-Moksha *pavas* 'god', 'good luck', 'happiness').

>How about something even more obvious. Bogha = bull.

>Worship of animals or gods manifested in animals, or the animals
>as manifestations of gods probably has a very long history in
>human affairs.

--
>Best Regards,
>Mark