The Iranian (Kurdish) Linguistic Formula of Life

Body + Breath = Life

گیان + هه ناسه = ژیان

Two Kurdish words giyan گیان  (sweatheart/ love /darling / life / soul / body) and zhiyan ژیان (life - no semantic extension) which are very close to each other both phonetically and semantically are related to the most importan word in life which is breath hanaasa هناسه reflecting additional semantic components of spirit and soul.

The old Iranian verb is hanh (to breathe). Note that the words giyan, zhiyan and hanaasa share (yan / han) and are related to (win) in English (wind) and to Latin (anima) breeze.This is possibly an onomatopoeic coinage reflecting the act of breathing.

Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

Bremen, 19 August 2016