4) Key

To begin this « breathtaking » exploration through the origins of BReaTh, sound and language, what better place to start than the most recent research in this field: let me tell you about the study carried out by teams from the Marc Jeannerod Institute of Cognitive Sciences in Lyon and from the Department of Neuropsychology of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, on oral communication among a group of chimpanzees.

In an article published in May 2022, these scientists showed that the sounds uttered by these chimpanzees could be divided into four broad categories: GRuNts (Rara), expired sounds (Hooo), BaRKs and high-pitched SCReaMs – OK, I confess that these sounds emerged from my own inspiration, but that's just to make my presentation more « lively » and « resonant ». Always remember Christ's words: « for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life ».

More importantly, these scientists also noticed that a third of the sequences they recorded consisted in one or more of these sounds following each other - in other WoRDs: WoRDs. Of these WoRDs, half were made up of two different sounds following each other (« bigrams »), and a third were made up of three sounds (« trigrams »).

Do the words « bigram » and « trigram » ring a bell? No? I’m sorry, I forget that I'm not talking exclusively to Semitic linguistics specialists for whom biliteral or triliteral roots hold no secrets. Therefore, let's pick up my Paleolithic linguistics lesson where I left off in my previous video. Remember, I talked about Sermons and the Messiah, ShyR MaShyaḤ.

I apologize, but in this video, I'm going to have a hard time transcribing the Hebrew consonants phonetically, as it would become quickly illegible. Don't worry, all you need to do to find the meaning is go to Google Translate and copy the letters onto the virtual keyboard there. It's very easy; you even have a link in the description of this video.

Anyway, today we're going to take a closer look at the famous spirit, RuwaḤ in Hebrew, made up of the « Ra » sound that we discovered in « Sha Ra » the chief poet and « Ta Ra » in my video on sharing, and the « aḤ » sound that expresses social harmony (« vivre ensemble »), the BRoTheRhood around the FiRe.

« Rourou » « Hoohoo » Sounds familiar? Silly me, I forgot to mention that in that famous study on chimpanzee oral communication, the sounds « Rara » and « Hoohoo » were 4 times more frequent than cries and barks. « Rara » « Hoohoo » And yes, here is our RuwaḤ.

RuwaḤ is the wind, the aiR, aèR in Greek. In Greek as well, the east wind is called éVRoS. But RuwaḤ is also an aRea or a RooM - both space filled with aiR. This concept is also found in Greek with éVRyS or even RuS in Latin, which gave us the word RuRaLity. And in this RuRaLity, we often eRR, ʔaRaḤ in Hebrew. And ʔaRuwR, CuRSed, may be the eRRoR of those who eRR.

In the Paleolithic era, aiR, RuwaḤ, or R, is what separates me from the GRouP aRouND the FiRe.

aiR is what brings into the body the smell ReyaḤ of meat cooking on the FiRe ʔaḤ, WaRMmth ḤaM and life ḤaY to feed the brain, MoaḤ, and bodily strength, KoaḤ.

RuwaḤ, aiR, is of course also what carries the RuMoR made by the group around the FiRe, the BRouHaHa. « Le BRuiT et l’oDeuR » ... a famous French song title inspired by a French president tongue slip in the 90s.

This archaic relationship between aiR, the GRouP, FiRe and life is found at the heart of Christ's message, in Saint Paul's famous sentence in his second letter to the Corinthians, which evokes « a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the SPiRiT: for the letter killeth, but the spirit SPiRiT life ». However, the study of the words of Christ, the super-linguist, is better done in Hebrew: RuwaḤ ḤaY is the SPiRiT that gives life.

This foundational sentence of Christianity has infused all our legal and political institutions. It is at the origin of the famed SPiRiT of the law and the contract that I mentioned at the beginning of this video.

One other very important thing, and as a matter of fact the most important thing, carried by aiR is sound and RuMoR (BRuiT in French). « Ommm ». In Hebrew, to sing, to SCReaM with joy is RaNan, a bit like when we sing a SeReNaDe and make RhyMes to aDoRN flattery. Or when we listen to the birds singing, the oRNis in Greek, or the lion RoaRing, ʔaRyeh in Hebrew, or even the echo oVRa in Greek. Or, quite simply, when we hum an ... aiR.

The very shape of the letter « Ra » in Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew is probably connected to the shape of the human ThRoaT: a miracle of hominid evolution that has enabled us to master the aRT of the WoRD, which I first told you about a year ago in my video « Symboles, paroles … Coopérons » (Symbol, Words, Let's cooperate). This aRT of the WoRD is that of oRaLity, which comes from the Latin oRaRe meaning « to speak », or to uTTeR WoRDs. This oRaLity is that of RuMoRs, those we HeaR with our eaR (oReiLLe in French).

As for the aiR that human beings eXPiRe and iNSPiRe, as my yoga teacher keeps on RePeaTing, it comes from the ThoRaX, ʔaRown in Hebrew. ʔaRown is a fundamental word in Judaism, the ʔaRown haQoDeSh the holy aRK, but I'll come back to this in a later video.

ThoRaX is connected to the nose, RiS in Greek (from which comes the prefix RhiNo-) through the ThRoaT, GoRGe in French, GaRown in Hebrew, from which GaRGLes and HoaRSe sounds come out.

The nose and ThRoaT release a flow of saliva and DRooL : RyR in Hebrew. In Greek, to flow is Réo - but rather slimy like snot, MoRVe in French, ReSiN RèTiNè in Greek, SeRum, oRos in Greek or even the dew, RoSée in French.