Origin and meaning of the name of the longest river in Africa: the “NILE”

Cover Picture Credit: https://www.britannica.com/place/Nile-River

HISTORY / ANCIENT EGYPT – Origin and meaning of the name of the longest river in Africa: the “NILE”

For a long time, the Guinness World Records considered the Nile, the longest river in Africa with its 6.852 km, as the longest river in the world as well. But this first place in the world that the Nile disputed with the Amazon and which was debated among scientists was ultimately attributed to the Amazon, in the light of a study by the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE ). Because, with its 6.992 km long, this South American river exceeds the Nile by 140 km. But where does the so-called “NILE” River, the longest river in Africa, come from?

HOWEVER THEY ARE PROMPT TO DENY THAT IT WAS BLACK PEOPLE FROM ANCIENT NUBIA WHO FOUNDED ANCIENT EGYPT, THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN OR IGNORE MANY THINGS ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THIS CIVILIZATION THAT PROVE IT AND WILL ALWAYS DENY THEIR FALSIFICATIONS.

“They wanted to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds” says the Mexican proverb. And this is one of the reasons why I wrote the “Dictionary of ancient Egyptian concepts: the indelible evidence from A to Z that the ancient Egyptians were Black people from Africa”, Editions Complicités, (Essay), Paris, 2021”, Editions Complicités, Paris, 2021.

From the Origin of the Name “NILE”…

The Nile River in Uganda:

Courtesy photo: /www.murchisonfallsparkuganda.com/information/river-nile/

We can read about the origin of the name of the longest river in Africa on the Internet:

« Etymology of the first name Nile

This first name, written Nil or Nilo, is of Arabic and Latin origin. It is derived from “nihil”, which means “nothingness”.

You can also read this:

“The name Nilus is derived from the Greek and is already read in Hesiod; Homer calls the river Aiguptos (=Egypt), at masc. (Odyss., IV, 477; XIV, 258); the fem. of the word applies to the country. “Nile” has no Egyptian etymology. The Egyptians called their river Ho J p (1), which theologians of more recent times erroneously identified with “Apis” (Hp); ordinarily one simply said the “river” (yetor, later ye’or, whence the Hebrew ye’or) or “the great river” (ye’or-a). In the. T, ye’or usually means the Nile (Gen 41:1-3,17 Ex 1:22 2:3-5 4:9 7:15-25 8:5,9 17:5 Isa 19:7 23:3 ,10 Jer 46:7 Eze 29:3,9, Am 8:8 9:5, Zech, 10:11); in Da 12:5-7 it is the Tiger. In the plural, this word designates (except Isa 33:21, Job 28:11, whose meaning is obscure) the branches and channels of the Nile (Ex 7:19 8:3,2Ro 19:24, Isa 7:18 19 :6 37:25, Eze 29:3-5-10 30:12, Na 3:8, Ps 78:44). Following the LXX and the Vulgate, which translate as “river” (except in Isa 19:6 33:21 37:25), a number of modern versions use the common names: “river”, “rivers”, instead of the proper name: “Nile”, “branches of the Nile”. CONSULT: A. Moret, Le Nil et la Civilisation égyptienne, Paris 1926, pp. 31-40. Voir Egypte. R.H. Pf. » Confer TopChrétien: https://topbible.topchretien.com › dictionary › nil.

World History Encyclopaedia tells us that:

“The river was known as the ‘Father of Life’ and the ‘Mother of All Men’ and was considered a manifestation of the god Hapi who blessed the earth with life, as well as the goddess Ma’at, who embodied the concepts of truth, harmony and balance”.

But it still tells us NOTHING about the origin and meaning of this name.

LAROUSSE: https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedia/riviere-lac/le_Nil/135315 writes this:

“Africa’s main river, draining a basin of around 3 million km2 and 6,700 km long (5,600 km from Lake Victoria), and which joins the Mediterranean Sea via a vast delta.

The river was called Hâpî by the Pharaohs, Chrysonoas by the Greeks, Bahr (“sea”) by the Arabs”.

On his page, WIKIPEDIA offers us a little more about the etymology of the name NILE by writing:

“The ancient Egyptians called it either Ḥ’pī or Ḥap, or iteru (trans. = jtrw)3 meaning “river” (…) The word “Nile” ((ar) nīl), comes from the Latin Nilus, itself from the Greek Νεῖλος (Neilos), which would itself be a distorted transcription of the Egyptian term Na-eiore, plural of eior, designating the delta4 and meaning “river, watercourse”.

Under the title “Egypt: the possibilities of the Nile” (Confers Le Monde-National Geographic History & Civilizations: https://www.histoire-et-civilisations.com/thematiques/antiquite/egypte-les-possibilites-du-nil- 71841.php), we can read:

“The Egyptians called this watercourse iterou, “the river”, whereas the name that we still give it today would derive its origin from the Coptic naiore, “the rivers”, by which we designated the branches of the delta”.

Egyptologists tell us that the ANCIENT EGYPTIANS called their NOURISHING RIVER by the name ITEROU or the Great River: iterou-aâ (itrw-aA) = the Nile.

“Jtrw” or “ITEROU” cannot be the only name of the NIL if we still except Hâpî. When we study ANCIENT LANGUAGES, we realize that there were always a thousand and one ways of naming. And that, unfortunately, our MODERN LANGUAGES have evolved from COMPLEXITY to SIMPLIFICATION to the point sometimes that for certain things, it is finally only one name or synonym that has come down to us in our MODERN LANGUAGES.

As I have already said for the NUMBER 1,000 in NATENI which is said THOUERIS which would come from the Greek even though it would be the opposite, we are told, FOR FAILURE OF EXPLANATION, that the name NILE comes from the Greek word Neilos (Νειλος), meaning “river valley”.

I Reject this Definition AND I Explain MYSELF:

The concept of “NOUN” was not born with PHARAONIC EGYPT and we will have to stop being wrong about it. It is well before the Pharaonic Civilization and remains a construction emanating from ANCIENT NUBIA and which is just as old.

IT IS VERY INTERESTING to note that on the origin of the Greek word Νεῖλος (Neilos) WIKIPEDIA underlines the very important fact that it “would itself be a deformed transcription of the Egyptian term Na-eiore, plural of eior, designating the delta4 and meaning “river, stream”. Like THOUERIS of which I had to speak previously.

CONTRARY to this propensity which consists in attributing the origin of many ancient words to the Greeks, it is for the most part borrowings which have been Greekized and which are supposedly qualified as Greek words, in reality. And there are many of them when you study ANCIENT LANGUAGES closely.

The explanation of the origins and meaning of the Nile that is attributed to the Greek philosopher, Plutarch, proceeds only from the construction of a legendary origin. It simply has nothing to do with the linguistic rationality of the Nile Valley.

The Basque version is the one that comes much closer to the origin and meaning of the name of the River “NIL”.

“The Nile River takes its name from the Basque expression Ni-lo (I sleep), proof that it was discovered during one of its calm moments” reads BILKETA (https://www.bilketa. eus/discover/remarkable-documents/origin-and-antiquity-of-the-basque-language).

Even if it may seem anecdotal for many, BASQUE shares with NATENI treasures of archaic words that are quite surprising and edifying as to their proximity if we go back thousands of years in ANTIQUITY. As I have pointed out in several of my writings, the two languages have kept common ancient words. And the “Ni-lo (I’m sleeping)” explanation isn’t completely meaningless. It is a possible interpretation from a simple linguistic point of view. Although in the polysemy of ancient words, one must be warned to grasp their depth and always contextualize them. To this must always be added the SYMBOLIC and the SACRED which are important DETERMINATIVES in specific cases. Indeed “Ni-lo” can also be understood by “I sleep” in OLD NATENI. I could explain it in still more detail in other circumstances.

Marcus Boni TEIGA

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POST CRIPTUM :

Based on the NATENI LANGUAGE but also on the LUO LANGUAGE, the proof is made that the peoples of the NILE VALLEY already called this Nile River by “Jtrw” or “YAT-OURI” or “NOUN-YA-LUO”. And it is this last name that will vocalize to become the NILO to mean THE MAN of the human race of the NATEMBA. In fact, NILO is only the elliptical shape of NYILUO. Heard NYILUO is actually composed of NYA and LUO and between the two there is “ILA” represented by the “I” which makes the TRAIT D’UNION. Even if NYILUO of the LUO in EAST AFRICA only serves to designate WOMEN first as a human race. Remember, I had already said somewhere that in our ANCIENT LANGUAGES, the word used to designate the FATHER means MOTHER philologically.

Note that the LUO say “NYILUO” for “WOMEN” in the PLURAL and “NYAR LUO” or “NYALUO” for “WOMAN” in the SINGULAR. Likewise they say “YAWUOT LUO” for MEN in the PLURAL and for “WUOD LUO” for “MAN” in the SINGULAR.

In most of the oldest NIGERO-CONGOLESE LANGUAGES, you will find the root “NYA” with the same meaning in the SYMBOLIC and the SACRED. And its elliptical shape is “YA”. Hence the “NYA” which has been maintained over the millennia to signal the specificity of the FEMININE compared to the “YA” for the MASCULINE in EAST AFRICA.

As I have already written: the NATEMBA are DESCENDANTS of the ANCIENT LUO of the NILE VALLEY and the FIRST to carry out GREAT MIGRATIONS, some in the direction of and bound for ANCIENT INDIA and the others in the direction of and bound for the LAKE CHAD. The DNA of our languages is an indelible witness. My comparative studies between the current LUO and the current NATENI bring more new evidence every day.

The plural of NILO is NIBA in the NATENI language. In reality, NIBA = NOUMBA = NOUBA. The WASSANGARI Migrants who reached NORTH GHANA via NIGERIA, NIGER, BURKINA FASO were known under the generic name of NA-NOUMBA or NA-NOUMA before splitting into three groups: the NANOUMBA, the DAGOMBA (DAGBAMBA) and the MAMPRUSI.

It is with the same variant of the NILO as the Cousins of the NATEMBA, in this case the BATAMMARIBA say ONITI POKOU for WOMAN and ONITI LOH or ONITI DOH for MAN (The L being interchangeable with the D according to the speakers). Because, in many ANCIENT LANGUAGES, the HUMAN GENDER is generally followed by a DETERMINATIVE to specify whether it is a WOMAN or a MAN. And the NATEMBA add POHO or PWO and LOHO or LOWO…to say NI-LOHO or NI-LOWO or NI-POHO or NI-PWO, which is an elliptical form of NILO-LOHO or NILO-POHO.

Finally, it is the name “NILO” which gave birth to the adjective “NILOTIC”. To qualify the Peoples of the NILE VALLEY bordering the River “NILE”.

In short, ABOUT THE NILOTIC, you will read: from the Latin niloticus, from the Greek Neilos. IT IS IMPROBABLE THAT THIS WORD IS GREEK STRICTO SENSU.

And now, have fun looking for the meaning of “NILOTIC” in the ENCYCLOPEDIA.

HERE IS ONE TO READ IN UNIVERSALIS: https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedia/nilotiques/:

“The term Nilotic clearly bears the mark of its geographical origin. It refers to people who live in the Nile Valley or are from there. In fact, it has only ever been used for certain groups located between the 12th parallel north and Lake Victoria (which the equator crosses) and which, from west to east, extend over a region which largely overflows the valley. of the Nile since in certain places it reaches a dozen degrees of longitude. But, as has frequently happened in African studies – see the term Bantu, for example – there have been shifts from place to language, from language to ‘race’, and from race to way of life.

It has been found that the languages spoken by the Shilluk, the Dinka and the Nuer – the first groups who were called Nilotic because they actually inhabit the valley of the White Nile – are similar to the languages spoken by certain societies far removed from Nile like the Alur (in Uganda and Zaire) and the Luo (in Kenya). Nilotic took on a linguistic meaning, referring to all groups speaking languages related to those of the Shilluk, Dinka and Nuer.

Some physical anthropologists, such as H. V. Vallois, have considered that the peoples speaking Nilotic languages presented distinct hereditary traits and constituted in the “Melano-African race” a “Nilotic sub-race” characterized in particular by a very tall size, a slender body and a nose that “looks much more European than Negro.”

It is high time that beyond the language barriers inherited from Colonization in Africa, inter-African university cooperation really becomes a reality, particularly in the field of Human Sciences and Ancient Black Africa.

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Marcus Boni Teiga.

Our Guest Writer today is a well renowned and accomplished, Journalist and Writer Marcus Boni Teiga. Marcus is also one of the antiquarians and best specialists in Nubian studies. Winner of the Imhotep International Prize in 2014 at the Pan-African Book Fair in Brussels for all of his work on ancient Nubia, winner of the Reuters scholarships in journalism in 1994 and Reuters Fellow at the Media Studies Center of the Michel University of Montaigne from Bordeaux 3, France. And many more. Some of his writings include: