 Likewise, he proposed Semitic etymologies for words of unknown or disputed origin; for instance, he related the word "bee" to Egyptian "bj-t" or the name "Éire", older "*īwerijū" to "*ʼj-wrʼ(m)", 'island (of) copper', as in Akkadian "weriʼum" 'copper'.Other evidence for a Semitic superstratum included a Semitic influence on the Germanic form of the Indo-European ablaut system and similarities between Germanic paganism and Mesopotamian mythology, such as the parallelism between Freyja and Ishtar, goddesses of war and love.The idea of a connection between Insular Celtic and Afroasiatic goes back to John Davies (1632) but was expanded by John Morris-Jones in 1913 and was developed further by Vennemann.