How giraffe might have got its name जिराफ का नामकरण कैसे हुआ होगा

Giraffe is an East African animal. The linguists believe that it was called zarafa in some African language from where it was adopted in Arabic, changed to giraffa in Italian  and to  jarraf or ziraph in middle English and finally as giraffe in English. The meaning of the original African word zarafa is not known.

Why and how do you think that our ancestors who saw it for the first time would have named it? Suppose you were present with those ancestors and were asked to name it. Giraffe’s unique identity is its long neck. Naturally, you would have searched for a word with the meaning: 'long-necked'.  Interestingly the word in Sanskrit for the neck is greeva (ग्रीवा). And 'graiva' (ग्रैव) means representing the neck, 'graivey' (ग्रैवय) means 'relating the neck'. It seems that our ancestors in Africa used the word GREEVYA (ग्रीव्या) that would mean 'the necked-one'. The word GREEVYA might have changed to zarafa > giraffe by simple mutations:

GREEVYA ग्रीव्या

GAREVAYA

ZAREVAYA

ZARABAYA

ZARYABA

ZARYAFA

ZARAFA (Arabic)

GARAFA>GIRAFA (Italian)

JARRAF (M. English)

ZIRAF (M. English)

GIRAFFE (English) 

Although giraffe is an east African animal, it has been sculpted on the walls of the 13th century Sun temple KONARK in Odisha (India). There is evidence of sea trade between India and Africa in ancient times. What did the ancient Indian call giraffe when they imported it? They called it CHITRA-GREEVIN (चित्र-ग्रीविन) and CHITRA-USHTRA (चित्र-उष्ट्र) which mean spotted camel! The word GREEVIN (ग्रीविन) which sound and means similar to GREEVYA that was used by our ancestors in Africa for giraffe had already been exhausted for naming camel by our Indian ancestors.  But about camel; some other day. 

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Reference:
Word Origin & History
giraffe
1594, from It. giraffa, from Ar. zarafa, probably from an African language. Earlier M.E. spellings varied wildly, depending on the source, including jarraf, ziraph, and gerfauntz, the last apparently reflecting some confusion with olifaunt "elephant." Replaced earlier camelopard, a compound of camel for long neck) and pard "leopard" (for spots)
camel (for the long neck) and pard (1) "leopard" (for the spots).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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कल्पना कीजीये उस समय की,  जब किसी भी मनुष्य ने पहली बार जिराफ को देखा था। हमारे उस पूर्वज ने उसे क्या नाम दिया होगा? चलिये आप ही बताइये कि अगर आप वहाँ होते तो क्या नाम देते। जिराफ की अतुलनीय पहचान है उसकी गरदन। निश्चय ही आप जिराफ को कोई ऐसा नाम देते जिसका अर्थ होता: 'लंबी गर्दन वाला' या 'जहां तक देखो गरदन'।  संस्कृत में गरदन  को कहते हैं 'ग्रीवा'। 'ग्रैव्य' है गरदन से संबन्धित। जी हाँ, हमारे पुरखो ने इस प्राणी के नामकरण के लिए 'ग्रीव्या'  शब्द की रचना की होगी। हम तक पहुँचते हुए ग्रीव्या  शब्द बदल कर जिराफ़ कुछ इस तरह से हुआ होगा : 

ग्रीव्या 

गरीवया 

गरवया 

जरवया 

जरबया 

जरयबा 

जरयफा 

जराफा (अफ्रीकी भाषा )

जराफा (अरबी) 

जिराफा (इटालियन)  

 जिराफ (अङ्ग्रेज़ी) 

यूं तो जिराफ केवल पूर्वी अफ्रीका में ही पाया जाता है, किन्तु 13वीं शताब्दी में बने विश्वविख्यात कोणार्क सूर्य मंदिर  (ओडीशा, भारत) की दीवार में जिराफ़ की सुंदर आकृति बनी हुई है। अगर प्राचीन भारतीय अफ्रीका से जिराफ़ भारत में लाते थे, तो फिर वे इसे क्या कहते थे?   वह संस्कृत में जिराफ को चित्रग्रीविन और चित्रोष्ट्र अर्थात धारीदार ऊंट कहते थे । ग्रीवीन शब्द से वे पहले ही ऊंट का नामकरण कर चुके थे फिर जिराफ को ग्रीव्या कहने से भ्रम बनता। ख़ैर, ग्रीवीन, उष्ट्र और ऊंट की बात फिर कभी। 

Animal Names-1: How did donkey get its names

We are starting a long journey with our ancestors. It is like going back in a time machine to as far back as 200,000 year in human history to find out why and how our ancestors created the first words and how these words underwent repeated mutations in their passage to us. It is also like going on a biological expedition in the past to experience the magic moments when our ancestors encountered a new plant or an animal and needed a word to communicate that experience to other members of their population.  Let’s imagine the feelings of our ancestor at their first view and experience of a donkey braying denchu-denchu melodiously! How would they have described the experience to the others?  Perhaps by repeating the sound denchu-denchu just as a child mimics bho-bho or meon-meon of dog and cat respectively. And how the new word would have been transmitted down the generations?

Transmission of word – channel 1

Original communication

DENCHU DENCHU  डेंचू डेंचू

D

E

N

CH

U

D

E

N

CH

U

1st mutation ( CH>K, च>क)

DENKU DENKU डेंकू डेंकू

D

E

N

K

U

D

E

N

K

U

2nd mutation (E>O; ए>ओ)

DONKU DONKU  डोंकू डोंकू

D

O

N

K

U

D

O

N

K

U

3rd mutation (U>EY; उ>ई)

DONKEY DONKEY डोंकी डोंकी

D

O

N

K

EY

D

O

N

K

EY

Transmission of word – channel 2 (diversion from channel 1 after the first mutation)

Original communication

DENCHU DENCHU  डेंचू डेंचू

D

E

N

CH

U

D

E

N

CH

U

1st mutation (CH>K; च>क)

DENKU DENKU डेंकू डेंकू

D

E

N

K

U

D

E

N

K

U

2nd mutation (D>DH; द>ध)

DHENKU DHENKU धेंकू धेंकू

DH

E

N

K

U

DH

E

N

K

U

3rd mutation (K>G; क>ग)

DHENGU DHENGU धेंगु धेंगु

DH

E

N

G

U

DH

E

N

G

U

4th   mutation (U>A; उ>आ)

DHENGA DHENGA धेंगा धेंगा

DH

E

N

G

A

DH

E

N

G

A

5th mutation (E>A; ए>अ)

DHANGA DHANGA धंगा धंगा

DH

A

N

G

A

DH

A

N

G

A

6th mutation (deletion of N; न का लोप)

DHAGA DHAGA धगा धागा

DH

A

G

A

DH

A

G

A

7th mutation (inversion of sequence; अक्षरों का क्रम उलट)

GADHA गधा Hindi, Urdu, word

G

A

DH

A

8th mutation (G>KH; ग>ख)

KHADHA खधा

KH

A

DH

A

9th  mutation (DH>T; ध>त)

KHATA खता

KH

A

T

A

10th mutation (A>O; आ>ओ)

KHOTA खोता Punjabi word

KH

O

T

A

Transmission of word – channel 3 (diversion from channel 2 after the 7^th mutaion)

7th mutation (inversion of sequence; अक्षरों का क्रम उलटा)	GADHA,गधा Hindi, Urdu, word				G	A	DH	A
8th mutation (addition of BHAR meaning burden; भार शब्द का जुड़ना)	GADHA + BHAR			G	A	DH	A	BH		A	R
9th  mutation (rearrangement of sequence; (क्रम का बदलना)	GARDABH, गर्दभ Sanskrit  word			G	A	R	DH		A	BH	A

Ass, the synonym for donkey seems to be a degeneration of Ashva (अश्व), the Sanskrit word for horse. Looks like a case of mistaken identity by some ancestors who were not very familiar with the horses.

Ashva > Asya > Assya > Ass

Khar (खर) is another name for donkey in Sanskrit and Hindi. Its derivation seems to be from Kshar ashva (क्षार अश्व) which means horse of the sea salt: Kshar ashva > khar asya > khar ahya > khar. The only place in the world where the ass is found in the wild is the Great Rann of Kutch, which is salt Marsh located in Gujrat, India and Sindh, Pakistan. 

It is interesting to note that it took three mutations to get the English word donkey from the natural sound dhenchu but seven, nine and ten mutations respectively to get Hindi GADHA, Sanskrit GARDHABH and Punjabi KHOTA! The original home of donkey is in Africa.  The donkey must have travelled a lot more to reach India than it did to reach Europe. Note that almost all the mutation shown in the probable etymology of donkey and its synonyms take place in the same phonetic group of letters of the Devanagari alphabet table.     

You may also like to see what the linguists have to say on how donkey got its names:

Donkey

 Word Origin & History

donkey

1785, slang, perhaps from dun "dull grey-brown," the form perhaps infl. by monkey. Or possibly from a familiar form of Duncan (cf. dobbin). The older Eng. word was ass.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/donkey

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Ass

Word Origin & History

ass

beast of burden, O.E. assa (Old Northumbrian assal, assald), prob. from O.Celt. *as(s)in "donkey," which (with Ger. esel, Goth. asilus, Lith. asilas, O.C.S. osl) is ultimately from L. asinus, probably of Middle Eastern origin (cf. Sumerian ansu). Since ancient Gk. times, in fables and parables, the animal.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ass