Names given to many animals with tails carry a common element in Turkish. “Lan” suffix. It adds meaning of “with (something)”. It also sometimes used to connect consecutive events.
- Snake : Yılan. This one is simply means with a mouth. "Ye+mek": To eat. Also “Y” is just the shape.
- Lion: Aslan. Because of the tassel at the end.
- Tiger: Kaplan. Because of colour change at the end of the tail. Because tip is covered and that is battern breaking. “kap+la+mak” means to cover in Turkish.
- Cheetah: (Alp)Arslan, Because of circles at the end of the tail. (Forgotten and confused with the name for lion. It is not considered to mean cheetah. Cheetahs are not common. Rather forgotten. Historically it was elite pet. There are actually multiple ways to construct this name.)
There are also Hyena, “Sırtlan”, and gazelle, “ceylan”. (Gazella is because horns. “Sırt” means back.) But these names seems like not related to their tails. In this articles we are focusing to animals with pattern braking tails at end of tail. It shouldn't be a straight line.
This naming convention is an artifact of Jesus, Moses or such persons. Because only a baby can recognise an animal lion as two object connected to each other. It seems like about overall pattern breaking through the tip of the tail. Wouldn't name an animal over difference at the tip of the tail. Long tail is also may be important so different tip recognized more clearly. In Islamic literature Jesus attested miracle of speaking as a baby.
In old Turkic and some Turkic dialects it is mentioned that Onager named “tulan”. “Tuğ” used for sticks with tassel at the top used in old times in wars. ( There is also this: kulan, maybe tulan is wrong.)
¶ Some Historical Artifacts
- Snake is important symbol related to Jesus in Christianity especially in Gnostics.
- Moses throws his staff and it becomes a snake in Semitic literature and holly books.
- Lion is very similar to “Lan”
- “Kaplan” is common Ashkenazi Jew surname.
¶ May Be Related
- Snake. Starts with “s” which is also plural suffix in English. “Lan” is used as plural and collective suffix in Persian according to chatGPT.
- Augustus of Prima Porta, This may be unrelated to some names seems like had to be tracing to a Roman Emperor. Likely Augustus. Not that he named them. Jesus wouldn't see a tiger otherwise.