SV: SV: Tamil Muslims/ Re: Aryans

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Maciej St. Zieba [SMTP:mszieba at UW.LUBLIN.PL] skrev 5. desember 2000 10:32:
> As far as I have heard (not being specialist in Indo-European ethymology
> or in Celtic) the word "Eire"/"Ireland", same as "Iran", comes from the
> same root as "Arya"  - therefore - may be "at least" (some) Celts are
> also Aryans?

Probably not. I once asked a Norwegian Indo-Europeanist cum Celticist about
this, and he said the connection made between Eire and Aryan was spurious.
But there has been such a theory.

>
> I know of two uses of the word Aryan, very frequent
>         1) Aryan = Indo-European (from this comes the use of "Indo-Aryan"
as
> opposed to "Indo-non-Aryan"  i.e. to Dravidian, Munda, and whatever
> else)
>
>         2) Aryan = Indo-Iranian
>
> I don't think the first use is erroneous - it's only a question of
> convention.

In a scholarly context, the first use is erronous. (Aryans are a subgroup
of the Indo-Europeans). It goes back to a time when being "Aryan" was
supposed to be very nice. The Germans for a period loved being Aryan, and
the term was politicized with the consequences we know. Today, the
non-technical use of "Aryan" should be avoided, since it is so closely
connected to European fascism. Only the Indo-Iranians were Aryans in the
technical sense.

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
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