φωνήphōnē
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Root
-bvuma
to assent aloud, to say yes, to roar, to resound, to thunder
Phone descends from Shona bvuma, to resound, to assent aloud
- Confidence
- 61/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- φωνήAncient Greek
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative linguistics derives φωνή from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- "to speak", via a Proto-Greek action noun in *-nā, with cognates including Latin fārī and fāma, Sanskrit bhánati and Old English bannan. No relationship to Bantu is recognised, and Shona fone is treated as a modern loan from English telephone.
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
- Pelagiaparato spread out, to lay out flat, to clear a surface level
- Kérberoskerekato be smeared, streaked, marked with dirt; causative kerekedza, to streak or daub
- ἀποκτείνω-tekanato be cut off, be broken off, be severed, to snap
- μάχαιραmhakamatter, case, dispute, cause of quarrel; fault, blame, the grounds on which one is answerable
- βλασφημία-bvato come out, to issue forth; in the derived bvuma, to give voice, to assent
- Theosmutsakindness, favour, mercy