Ancient Greek

Root

dhaka

mud, wet clay, earth used for building

Greek ge descends from Shona dhaka, the earth as worked clay

Confidence
62/100
Root language
Shona
Descent begins
γῆAncient Greek

The consensus position

Mainstream comparative linguistics treats Ancient Greek γῆ (beside γαῖα, Doric γᾶ) as of uncertain origin, with Beekes and others assigning it to the Pre-Greek substrate; it is not derivable from PIE *dʰéǵʰōm, whose regular Greek reflex is χθών. No connection to Bantu is recognised.

The working behind this.

The full descent — 6 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.

An account opens 10 entries in full, free.

Elsewhere in the corpus