bʰeh₂-
“to speak, to say, to tell”speak/say
PIE root meaning to speak, say, or tell. Ancestral to Latin fārī and numerous words for speech and utterance.
Discussion
The root *bʰeh₂- ("to speak, to say") is reconstructed in LIV² (s.v. *bʰeh₂-) and Pokorny (IEW 105–106). The laryngeal *h₂ is established by the a-colouring visible in Greek and Latin reflexes.
Greek phēmí (φημί, "I say, I speak") directly continues the athematic present *bʰéh₂-mi, with the expected ē-vocalism from lengthened *eh₂ in Greek. The noun phḗmē (φήμη, "voice, report, oracle") and the compounds euphḗmos ("well-spoken"), áphatos ("unspeakable"), and prophḗtēs ("one who speaks forth, prophet") are all derivatives. Latin fārī ("to speak") continues the root with regular *bʰ > f; the past participle fātus gives fātum ("that which has been spoken"), whence English fate, fatal, and fairy (via Old French). Latin fāma ("rumour, fame, report") directly parallels Greek phḗmē, yielding English fame, famous, infamous, and defame. The infant sense emerges from Latin īnfāns ("not speaking"), giving English infant, infantry.
In Slavic, Old Church Slavonic bajati ("to tell, to enchant") preserves the root in a magical-speech register. Armenian bay ("word, speech") is a further cognate, though its exact phonological development is debated.
The root shows standard *CeRH- ablaut. The semantic range is consistently "to speak, to utter" across branches, with secondary developments into "prophecy" (Greek), "fate" (Latin), and "enchantment" (Slavic), all deriving from the power attributed to spoken words in PIE culture.
Notes
Source of Latin "fāri" (to speak), Greek "phēmí". Root of "fame", "fable".
Related Roots
English Words from *bʰeh₂-
These modern English words descend from this root. Each page traces the full journey from PIE to present-day English.