Re: [tied] Got milk?

----- Original Message -----

From: richardwordingham

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 8:52 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Got milk?

> Why are the Centum elements of Bangani described as a substrate?  Would not a superstrate be more likely given the size and nature of the vocabulary?

 

No, we are talking about a handful of Centum words in what is otherwise an inconspicuous Indo-Aryan language.

> Has Ancient Macedonian been ruled out as the source of the Centum element?  I see it's been suggested, but I don't know whether we know enough to exclude it.

 

I should think Alexander's armies would have been more likely to scatter Greek loans in their wake (not that Macedonian was very different from Greek). Some of the Bangani words are definitely non-Greek (e.g. kOtrO 'fight' and gOsti 'guest of honour').

 

Piotr