Why is the guinea pig so called?

Breeders deduced about 80 breeds and varieties of guinea pigs, differing in size, texture of the cover, color. But people don't know much about them. We will try to fill this gap with interesting material.

Guinea pigs (or guinea pigs) are referred to as rodents of the gilts of the guinea pig family. Nevertheless, the animal in no way intersects with the breed of pigs, and also does not correlate with the inhabitants of the sea depths. Their relatives are rabbit, squirrel, beaver, capybara.

In addition, it is unlikely that they are in any way associated with Guinea. Such a "tricky" name of these good-natured animals received historically in connection with their appearance, taking into account the physiological and behavioral characteristics, as well as based on their habitats and distribution features. On this occasion, there are a number of versions, but to give preference to any of them is quite difficult.

Caivey (another name for guinea pigs) is very ancient animals. They tamed their Incas in the XIII - XV centuries, using as a source of valuable, dietary meat and for decorative purposes. According to the researcher Neringa, the mummies of animals were found in Peru at the Ancona cemetery. As one of the most reliable versions says, their supposed wild ancestors still live in Peru.

Today, Peru’s enterprises contain up to 70 million domesticated animals. Every year they produce about 17,000 tons of valuable meat. For centuries, the inhabitants of the Andes have been supplying the meat of these animals, which has a whole complex of dietary and taste properties.

The animal can not actively defend itself, and therefore forced to live in groups. And the team, as you know, is difficult to take by surprise. The watchdog functions are explicitly expressed and are executed in the order of succession even in pairs. They reproduce intensively at different times of the year due to the need to protect the species.

In addition, pigs have a very sensitive ear and an unusually developed sense of smell. When a danger arises, the animals quickly hide in their burrows where the aggressor cannot reach them. Pigs are extremely clean - they often “wash” themselves and tirelessly “wash” their children. Therefore, it is not easy for predators to find the animal by scent - its fur coat exudes only the subtle smells of hay.

In Europe, these furry animals became known in the 16th century after the conquest of a number of American regions by the Spanish conquistadors. Later, by water, they were in Europe, where they spread as pets.

The average weight of a mature mumps is 1-1.5 kg, length - 25-35 cm. Some representatives reach a weight of 2 kg. They live 8-10 years.

In domestic pigs, the color is usually brown-gray, the belly is light. Wild pigs are usually gray. There are several groups of breeds of domestic animals (with different colors):

1. with short hair (selfs, crosses and others);
2. with long hair (Texel, Peruvian, Merino, Angora);
3. with hard wool (teddy, rex);
4. without wool or with a small amount (wool and skinny).

At night they can barely hear the tweet like birds. Marital songs are performed by males in the style of various tones. Because of their high susceptibility to pathogens of a number of infections, animals are widely used for laboratory experiments. This quality led to their use in the diagnosis of various diseases - diphtheria, tuberculosis and others.

In surveys of famous Russian and foreign scientists-bacteriologists (I.I. Mechnikov, N.F. Gamalei, R.Kokh), Keivi occupy a leading place among experimental animals.

Consider why this funny little animal is so strangely named. There are several hypotheses of the origin of the name, respectively, they distinguish a number of direct signs of two main factors:

1. appearance;
2. Behavior and sounds.

For the first time about the animal in its scientific treatises (“Chronicles of Peru”) writes Pedro Ciez de Leon in 1554, calling it “Kui” (Spanish Cuy). Later in the books of Diego G. Olgina (1608) there are "Ccoui", "Ccuy", which literally means "the local small rabbit". At the same time, “ccuy” is translated as “gift”. In the Americas, various members of this family have retained this name to our time.

If we take into account that the dietary meat of an animal was eaten with pleasure, the animal was revered, and statuettes and other decorative items with its image still exist today, the word “gift” in its semantic content fully corresponds to the object.

The name "guinea pig" appeared from the moment the animals appeared in Europe, where they were brought by Spanish sailors. Therefore, it is very likely that the animals received their European name in Spain. Thus, with the light hand of the Spanish sailors, the “rabbit-dar” turned into a pig. And since this very “gift” was overseas, then upon arrival in Europe, the animal also became “sea”, although it did not learn to swim.

Giving such a name and being observant people, the authors rightly proceeded from several specific features of the animal, characteristic of its appearance, as well as physiological and behavioral features.

Characteristic of caivi: elongated body, coarse hair, short neck, small legs. On the front limbs there are 4, and on the hind - 3 fingers, equipped with large, similar to the hoof, claws. The tail is missing. The animal's voice is like gurgling water, and when frightened turns into a screech. The sound effusions produced by the little animals clearly resemble the grumbling of pigs.

In addition, the blunt shape of the face is very similar to the pig pig.

It is likely that played a role here and the way the natives cooked pigs for food. Pre-carcasses were scalded with boiling water to remove wool, like removing bristles from pigs.

And also put up for sale in Peru carcasses of the animal looks very much like carcasses of milk pigs.

The existing indirect signs, which in their majority confirm the previously cited hypotheses of the appearance of the name “guinea pig”. However, there are contradictions.

Thus, the English name containing the word "Guinean" is also explained in different ways. One of the versions is based on the fact that trade with Guinea at the time of the appearance of animals in Europe was the most intense, which is why it was often confused with other territories. Another version advocates the view that the Keiwie was not originally domesticated, but used only as a food product. It is possible that the emergence of the idiom guinea pig - “pig for guinea” - was correlated with this (until 1816, guinea was a coin named after the state of Guinea, where the British mined gold).

Another assumption - in England of that time, “guinea” in its nominal interpretation corresponded to everything brought from distant overseas territories. There is also a suggestion that keiwi actually traded for 1 guinea.It is possible that the letters in the names Guiana (Guiana) and Guinea (Guinea) were elementary confused.

The scientific Latin term used is Cavia porcellus, which contains porcellus - “little pig”, but the word cavia comes from cabiai. Hence the specialists use the name Cavy (keiwi), whereas the term “Guinea pig” is used more broadly.

We have the term originated from Poland (swinka morska), and in Poland - from Germany.

In most cases, the definition of animals contains or implies the word "pig." So the French have an Indian pig, the Dutch have a Guinean pig, the Portuguese have a small Indian pig, and the Chinese have a Dutch pig. The list can be continued.

However, there are parallels with other animals. In Japanese - モ ル モ ッ ト (morumotto - marmot); in Spanish - conejillo de Indias (small Indian rabbit); on one of the German dialects - merswin (dolphin). Such sharp differences are most often explained by the linguistic features of the language and the coincidences in pronunciation.

Summarizing, we note that in different languages ​​the animal is called differently:

1. in German - guinea pig;
2. in English - guinea pig, home keiwi, restless (mobile) kevey;
3. in Spanish - Indian mumps;
4. in French - Indian mumps;
5. in Ukrainian - morska mumps, cavia guvineka;
6. in Italian - Indian mumps;
7. in Portuguese - Indian pig;
8. in Dutch - an Indian mumps.

It is clear that a certain variety of names reflects the history and source of animals in a particular country. An important factor in this context is the language features of a particular country. Nevertheless, the presence of the overwhelming "swine" analogy in the name of this creature speaks in favor of the basic version. Moreover, the "mumps" is not so much harms the ear, as its base source of origin.

See why the guinea pig is called in the next video.