Re: Single origin of agriculture ?

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 42286
Date: 2005-11-26

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> *bar-/*bur- "grain, cereal" Semitic
...
> *bVr- Berber
...
> *bar-/*bur- West Chadic
> biri "kind of flour" Hausa
...
> with assimilation of vowels >

> *bar-/bur- East Chadic
> bura "flour" Sumray
...

> *bur- "wheat" Lowland
> East Cushitic
...

> bUrU "millet" Old Bulgarian
...
> farr- "spelt, grits" Latin
>
>
> #mblut "unhulled rice, sticky rice" Proto-Miao-Yao
> *m-lut "glutinous millet" Old Chinese
> *Ba:? "rice (general)" Proto-Austro-
> Asiatic
> *bra:s "husked rice" Proto-Chamic
< Proto-Austronesian *beRas?

...
> (see http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Opr.html)

Grass seeds were eaten long before they were cultivated.

> It always puzzled me why PIE *pak-
> *pag- seemed to have to do with construction in or near water

Stilts?

Richard.