Joao mentions something strange from...
Now what was his name... Tom Arnold? :)
>Mayan -b = Chines - -o or zero
>Mayan (M) lab "old" = Chinese (C) lao "old"
>M lub "to fall" = C luo "to fall"
>M cab "strong,fertile" = C gao "fertile, fat"
>M tub "to spit" = tuo "to spit"
This Mr Arnold must not know much about Chinese. We need not
go into reconstructed SinoTibetan to demonstrate that this idea
is impossible. Let's first clarify the above misleading list.
The fact is that the "Chinese" language doesn't exist. Chinese
is a language family of divergeant dialects. In fact, Mandarin,
which is one of many Chinese dialects, has its own dialects. Ditto
for Hakka and these other "dialects" (aka "full-fledged languages").
Cantonese and Mandarin are not mutually understandable dialects
even though they use the same writing system.
So, we have things like /lao/, the _Mandarin_ word for "old".
However, in Cantonese, if I recall, the word is /lou/
(as with Mand /hao/ = Cant /hou/ "good"). Mandarin /uo/ is
found in Cantonese often enough as /o/ (/hen duo/ = /hou do/
"many").
The question is: What in the name of Sam is Mr Arnold proposing??
Is he proposing Chinese-Mayan connections (a theory which the
above proves to be false) or is he suggesting specifically
Mandarin-Mayan relations (somewhat absurd, don't you think?). If
this author has seriously claimed that "Mayan -b = Chines - -o
or zero", then this clinches the fact he misunderstands Pinyin
transliteration to be actual pronunciation (the "o" in "ao" = [w]
but the "o" in "uo" = /O/). Hence, he knows diddley jack
about Sinitic linguistics, if not linguistics in general, since it
is a pretty big blunder aferall and you expect people to think
hard about what they are proposing before publishing it!
Even if he does understand Chinese, Archaic Chinese is quite
different from Mandarin, making these proofs disintegrate back
into chance coincidences. Note /lha?/ "mouse" -> Mandarin /xu/.
It's crazy stuff.
Either way, let's leave SinoTibetan out of this and call a bad
idea a "BAAAD idea".
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gLeNny gEe
...wEbDeVEr gOne bEsErK!
home:
http://glen_gordon.tripod.com
email:
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