Re: The Semites and their reeds

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
wrote:

>
> Piotr:
> >The Latin word is actually <canna> (= Gk. kanna ~ kanne:), a loan

from

> >Semitic (*qanaw- 'reed'[...]
>
> YES!!! Damn, I'm good! I _knew_ that word was Proto-Semitic but I

couldn't

> find the actual Semitic protoform anywhere! Now I feel empowered!

That

> explains Knossos then :)
>
> Anyways from the looks of my possibly overanalytical imagination,

this

> Semitic word appears as though it was borrowed into Mid IE. The

form it

> took was *kanex though. I've never found the expected Late IE form
> **konx- in isolation. Only as part of the word *konx-qo- "honey".
>
> My little hypothesis rests on the assumption that MIE *kanex

originally

> meant "sugar cane", a meaning similar enough to "reed" to be

credible

> while explaining "honey" (something that is sweet and tasty like

sugar

> cane).

But were speakers of either MIE or PS familiar with sugar cane? I
have read that sugar cane was not introduced into western Asia until
Hellenistic times, and not introduced into Europe until the Islamic
invasion of Iberia.

Ned Smith