It’s too hot and muggy today to construct a coherent post, so I’ll just toss out some bits and pieces I’ve had sitting around.
1) In some earlier thread I ran across a mention of the widespread Afroasiatic root *lis- ‘tongue,’ which has the following descendants:
• Proto-Berber: *iləs (see there for further descendants)
• Egyptian: ns (see there for further descendants)
• Proto-Semitic: *lišān- (see there for further descendants)
• Proto-Chadic: *lis-um-
• Hausa: harshè (see there for further comparisons)
Check out the Berber writing systems: Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵉⵍⵙ (ils), ⵉⵔⵙ (irs); Medieval Tashelhit: ايلس (iles).
2) I recently watched the 1925 movie The Big Parade (it’s about American soldiers in WWI; an intertitle reads “THE BIG PARADE/ Men! Guns! Men!/ Men! Guns!”), and at one point one Yank calls to another (per an intertitle): “Yo….Slim!” I’m not sure if this is an antedate; the OED (entry revised 2016) lumps all these senses together: “An exclamation used to attract attention, to express warning, surprise, etc., or to incite or encourage action; hey! Later (colloquial (frequently in African American usage)) used as a greeting or in response to a greeting,” and these are the two WWI-era citations:
1919 Every morning we fall out at six o’clock and yell ‘YO’ when our name is called. We like it.
Marine (Paris Island) 12 March 51920 Yo!! Breakfast.
W. B. Ellington, Company ‘A’ 23rd Engineers 112
Meanwhile, Green’s has “1. yes!” (first cite: 1918 [US] D.G. Rowse Doughboy Dope 29: You are assisted in answering ‘Yo!’ to your name by the fortunate knowledge of where it comes on the company roster) and “2. (US) a general term of address” (first cite very late: 1961 [US] (con. 1945) G. Forbes Goodbye to Some (1963) 94: ‘Greetings.’ ‘Yo.’). At any rate, I was struck by the very modern use in a 1925 film (set in 1917).
3) Just now I watched the 1994 movie English, August (based on a 1988 novel of the same name), which is a multilingual delight — it’s about a young Bengali, Agastya Sen, who as a reluctant civil servant is posted to the rural town of Madna (the movie was filmed in Visakhapatnam and the nearby seaside town Bheemunipatnam), and the movie has dialogue in English, Hindi, Bengali, and Telugu, the local language (which poor Agastya/August has to learn for his job by means of lessons based exclusively on official phrases like “The decision will be deferred until next week”). I was surprised to learn that Telugu was spoken so far north on the east coast of India. Also, Visakhapatnam has complicated onomastics:
Visakhapatnam (/vɪˌsɑːkəˈpʌtnəm/; formerly known as Vizagapatam, and also referred to as Vizag, Visakha, and Waltair) is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. […]
Etymology
The local belief behind the name of the city states that there was a king in the 4th century, who on his pilgrimage halted at Lawson’s Bay and built a temple dedicated to Vaisakha, which was submerged under the sea, but the name of the temple became attached to the settlement. Other historical names are, Kulotungapatnam, named by the Chola King Kulottunga I; Ishakapatnam, based on a Muslim Saint, Syed Ali Madani (Ishak Madani). During the East India Company rule in India, the city was known with the name, Vizagapatnam. The suburb Waltair is another such name which was derived from the name the British colonial government used. “Vizagapatnam” could also be spelled Visakhapatnam in the West European alphabet. The name was popularly shortened to Vizag and this form was in use right from the earliest days of British colonial rule in the district in the late eighteenth century. It is still referred to as Vizag by locals too; however, since independence, people have reverted to calling it by its Indian name of Visakhapatnam.
It would be nice to know the origin of “Waltair.”
To merge two of your topics, the etymology of Waltair is discussed here, at the website Yo! Vizag.
Heh. Thanks, that does answer my question:
As far as I can tell వాల్తేరు is transliterated vāltēru, from వాలు vālu ‘slope’ + ఏఱు ~ ఏరు ēṟu ~ ēru ‘river’. I don’t know if the -t- is morphological or phonological.
“in the West European alphabet”
i like that as a description of that branch of galkhes!
Re Egyptian ns (instead of *ls),
‘Both schools agree that Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian ⟨n⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨ꜣ⟩, and ⟨j⟩ in the dialect on which the written language was based, but it was preserved in other Egyptian varieties.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_language
The later (even 2350 BC!) language and all versions of Coptic have l.
Here’s page 112 of W. B. Ellington, Company ‘A’ 23rd Engineers. “Yo!! Breakfast.” is one of a long list of “Company Sayings”. I guess it falls under the OED’s “exclamation used to attract attention”.