作者： 發(fā)布時間：2017-01-10 關(guān)注度：243
I’ve observed that the Greek and Hebrew words for wine, oinos andyayin, are similar. Does this imply that there was a Mediterranean trade in alcoholic beverages?
我發(fā)現(xiàn)“wine”一詞的含義與希臘語oinos和希伯來語yayin 是如此地相似。這是否意味著地中海沿岸曾存在酒精飲料貿(mào)易活動？
The making and consumption of grape wine (as opposed to such “wines” as date wine, rice wine, etc.) had spread all over the Mediterranean world and parts of Europe by an early historical period, and the similar words for wine that exist in many European and Semitic languages all point to a common source for both the beverage and its name. Thus, to take a small sample, besides Greek oinos and Hebrew yayin, we have Latin vinum, Russian вино, Lithuanian vynas, German Wein, Welsh gwin, Armenian gini, Georgian ghvino (?????), and Amharic (the main language of Ethiopia) weyinina , to say nothing of such farther-flung cognates as Swahili mvinyo and Maori waina.
早期文獻記載，葡萄酒（與之相對的諸如紅棗酒、米酒等“酒類”）的釀造與消費已遍及整個地中海并蔓延至歐洲部分地區(qū)。歐洲眾多語言和閃米特語系中描述葡萄酒的詞匯都相似，這些詞匯都可追溯到這種飲料及其名稱的源頭。在此，我舉幾個例子：除了希臘語 oinos和希伯來語yayin 之外,我們還有拉丁語 vinum、俄語 вино、立陶宛語 vynas、德語 Wein、威爾士語gwin、亞美尼亞語 gini、格魯吉亞語ghvino (?????)和阿姆哈拉語(埃塞俄比亞主要用語) weyinina， 更不用說再遠地區(qū)的同源詞，如斯瓦希里語mvinyo 和毛利語waina。
Many of these words are obviously borrowings. Ancient Russians, Lithuanians, Germans, and other central and northern European peoples did not grow grapes or make wine, and a widely disseminated word for it could not have originated in any of their languages, just as it could not have done so in Amharic, Swahili, or Maori. And although such a word theoretically could have originated in Latin vinum, Greek oinos,or Hebrew yayin, since ancient Italy, Greece, and Palestine were all grape-growing and wine-making regions, this, too, is unlikely, because the earliest grape cultivation and wine production that historians can point to took place in the Caucasus.
許多詞匯毫無疑問都屬于外來詞匯。古代俄羅斯、立陶宛、德國以及其他中北歐國家的人們根本就不種葡萄，更別說釀酒了，這個廣為傳播的詞語不可能源自他們的語言，同樣也不可能源自阿姆哈拉語、斯瓦希里語或毛利語。雖然這樣的詞在理論上可能起源于拉丁語vinum、希臘語oinos或是希伯來語yayin，這是因為古意大利、希臘和巴勒斯坦都種葡萄，也釀酒，難道它源于這幾個國家的語言？這當然也是不可能的，原因是歷史學家早已確定葡萄栽培與釀酒的發(fā)源地始于高加索地區(qū)。
The oldest wine-making site discovered anywhere in the world thus far is in the Kvemo Kartli region of southeast Georgia, where clay vessels containing grape seeds and vine dust, dated to about 6,000 BCE, have been unearthed. It is probable, therefore, that it was Georgian, neither an Indo-European nor a Semitic language, that gave the world wine and a word for it, both of which spread in tandem.
迄今為止，世界上發(fā)現(xiàn)的最古老的釀酒場所位于格魯吉亞東南部的克維莫-卡爾特里(Kvemo Kartli)地區(qū)，在那里出土的陶器中存有大量的葡萄籽和葡萄藤粉末，可追溯到公元前6000年。因此，它很可能是源于格魯吉亞語，而不是印歐語或閃米特語。格魯吉亞給世界帶來了葡萄酒及“wine”這個詞，兩者共同傳播于世。
This leaves us with three possibilities:
我們推斷出3條可能的傳播路線：
(1) Wine and its manufacture traveled from the Caucasus to southern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean basin at roughly the same time, so that oinos and yayin are independently descended from an ancient form of modern Georgianghvino (?????), either directly or through other, mediating languages.
（1） 葡萄酒和釀酒工藝大約在同一時期從高加索地區(qū)傳到歐洲南部和地中海東部盆地，因此，oinos 和yayin這兩個詞應該是源自現(xiàn)代格魯吉亞語“ghvino ”的古語形式“?????”，可能是直接演化或通過其他語言演化而來的。
(2) Wine reached southern Europe from the Caucasus first and traveled from there to the eastern Mediterranean, so thatyayin may descend from oinos.
（2） 葡萄酒從高加索地區(qū)傳到歐洲南部，再從歐洲南部傳到地中海東部，因此，yayin 一詞可能源自 oinos。
(3) Wine reached the eastern Mediterranean from the Caucasus first and traveled from there to southern Europe, so thatoinos may indeed descend from yayin.
（3） 葡萄酒從高加索地區(qū)傳到地中海東部，再從地中海東部傳到歐洲南部，因此，oinos一詞可能源自yayin。
To the best of my knowledge, all of this remains an open question. Perhaps it will eventually be settled by the linguists and archaeologists, perhaps not. There’s really no rush to find out. Whether you would rather wash down your steak with a Greek agiorgitiko or an Israeli cabernet sauvignon doesn’t have much to do with it.
就我所知，這一切都還是待解之謎，或許語言學家和考古學家最終能解開謎團，也可能永遠塵封下去。不過我們倒不急于求證這個問題。因為搭配牛排，無論是希臘的阿吉提可 (agiorgitiko) 還是以色列的赤霞珠，都跟它沒太大關(guān)系。
