What was the Carthaginian (Punic) term for elephant

Question

Considering the legendary status of war elephants in Carthaginian (world) history... Do we know what their term was for “war elephants”, or simply “elephants”? Can someone point me in the right direction to find the answer?

Thank you, Gary

Answer 1

We don't actually have a lot of Punic writing examples available to us, and most of what we do have is religious inscription, which are unlikely to mention elephants, which were (to them) mundane creatures.

In ancient times there were in fact elephants native to both North Africa, and the Near East where the Carthaginians emigrated from. So these would not have been the exotic creatures to them which they are to most modern English speakers. It seems possible the 3rd Century BC military fad for their use had something to do with their disappearance from both places.

So this leaves us two likely possibilities. They borrowed the name that was in use by their Berber neighbors when they immigrated to North Africa, or they kept the NW Semitic name their Phoenician ancestors used. Well, there's sort of a third possibility suggested by my reading: The Semitic languages took their word from the Berbers, with the Carthaginians the natural conduit. The Berber (North African) word appears to have been "Elu", and the Semitic "fīl"^*. My sources indicate the Semitic is derived from the Berber word, but since Phonecian and Punic were originally the same language, that doesn't necessarily help us much. I'd lean toward "fīl"

^{* - I found this information in a footnote of a paper by Vaclav Blazek, which itself referred to "Lokotsch 1927". Its possible this may be a reference to the paper/book: "Lokotsch, K., (1927). Etymologisches Wörterbuch der europäischen (germanischen, romanischen und slavischen) Wörter orientalischen Ursprungs. Heidelberg" I found referenced in another work, but I'm afraid my lack of German means the trail goes cold there for me.}