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From: petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Night -- No Eight/Saturn or simply No Light?
Message-ID: <petrichDyJJFK.5qM@netcom.com>
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References: <324f7c2f.56332288@news.easynet.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 10:21:20 GMT
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In article <324f7c2f.56332288@news.easynet.co.uk>,
Ian Tresman <ianTresman@easynet.co.uk> wrote:

>In Hebrew, the word for "night" is "lail," which word seems to be 
>composed of the words "la El," or "lo El," which translate as "no El."
>So also in Arabic, in which language the word for "night" is "leyla," 
>composed of "le Eyl," that is "no El." 

	Cute. Might it not mean something like "no light" instead?

... Given that El is one of the most ancient Near 
>Eastern names for Saturn ...

	Primary sources, please?

, the term in question can also be translated 
>as "no Saturn." 

>But, in European languages, the word for "night" seems to translate as
>"no eight." 

	[several examples deleted]

In Proto-Indo-European, "night" was *nekwt-, "no" was *ne, and "eight" 
was *okto:, and the examples adduced show the regularity of sound 
correspondences across the Indo-European languages.

	I think that this is a cute coincidence, since one's first thought
is no eight of what; "no eight" in isolation does not make much sense. 
And just like the Semitic words, the word might more plausibly be 
analyzed as "no light".

>Some people have suggested that "eight" is the number for Saturn or
>"El" in the wisdom of Numerology. ...

	Which ones? And do they have any reasons other than the 
Indo-European "night" ~ "no eight" similarity?

	Both Indo-European and Semitic words for "night" appear as if 
they can be analyzed as "no light"; I don't know much about Semitic, but 
English "light" comes from IE *legwh-, which looks like it might be a 
candidate. *ne-legwh- > *negw(h)-t- > *nekwt-
-- 
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