Sixth Lecture

You see the interesting basis for such a progression, such a transformation of a word through the ages. I would like to show this with an example that is close at hand. Take, for example, the word: \(ϑήρ\), dius, animal. That is the same word, only at different times. Here (Greek) we have the word with a \(th\) \((ϑήρ)\); that would be the same \((ϑ)\) as our \(s\), the same as the English \(th\). The development would take place in such a way that it tends to go over here (Gothic): the \(th\) would become a \(d\) and, as it develops further, the \(d\) would become a \(t\): it becomes more ethereal. Now we have here in fact \(ϑήρ\) (Greek); 'here we have “dius” (Gothic) and here we have “Tier” (German). So the word in Greek is \((ϑήρ)\), the word in Gothic is (dius), the word in German is (Tier). It is the same word, exactly the same word. In Greek, it was centered in the physical. It tended to pass over into the astral in the next language, in Gothic; it tended to pass over into the etheric, becoming the word for “animal” in German.