Diffusion of the ancient "see/su" element from Eurasia to North America
Dr. John J. White III.
USA
Summary: This research paper is the result of a simple observation that the "see" element found in many North American rivwer/lake names like "Tennessee" could be very similar in meaning to the "see" element found in many Germanic lake names like "Bodensee". The Germanic "see"element is understood to mean "lake" today, and it is one of the simplest sounds used by man. It should come as no surprise that we think that "see" is pre-Germanic and one of the oldest words ever used by mankind. We elected to begin a search for river/lake names worldwide containing some semblance of the element "see" in order to seek insight into the ancient usage of the word "see". We found that the "see/su" element and its pronounciation variants occur quite often in North america in Native American (non-European) sounding river/lake names. Our conclusion is that the "see/su" usage migrated from Eurasia to North America several thousands years ago. This finding may be a useful tool for the study of cultural diffusion and ancient languages.