gʰh₁ew-
“to call, invoke”Source of Lithuanian žavėti, Old Church Slavonic zъvati
Root for calling or invoking, mainly attested in Balto-Slavic languages.
Discussion
The PIE root *gʰh₁ew- (to call, to invoke, to cry out) produced vocabulary for vocal summoning and divine invocation — the act of raising the voice to command attention or petition the sacred.
The root is debated in some reconstructions, but its reflexes in the daughter languages point to a PIE verbal stem meaning "to call out" with ritual overtones.
Latin in-vocāre (to call upon) and the broader family of vocāre derivatives may connect to this root through different PIE sources, though the primary Latin voice-word (vōx) is usually derived from *weḱ- (to speak). The distinction between *weḱ- (ordinary speaking) and *gʰh₁ew- (ritual calling/invoking) may reflect a PIE register difference — everyday speech versus formal petition.
Old English gīedan (to sing, to chant, to recite) may continue the root in the Germanic branch, connecting calling to chanting — the raised voice of ritual performance.
The root's significance lies less in its individual reflexes than in what it reveals about PIE speech-act vocabulary. The proto-language apparently distinguished multiple modes of vocal production: *weḱ- (to speak), *sengʷʰ- (to sing), *ḱens- (to proclaim formally), *gʰh₁ew- (to invoke/call), and *bʰeh₂- (to say). Each carried a different social register and a different relationship to authority, ritual, and audience. The PIE speakers were, it seems, precise taxonomists of the human voice.