> > > Perhaps Semitic /?rD/ "earth, soil", Arabic /?arD/.
> >
> > I thought "soil" was *'-d-m-h (hence Adamah)?
> >
>
>Maybe in other Semitic dialiects the root /?dm/ signified soil.
This root exists. I think I've come across the Hebrew version with /s/ for
*T (the expected change). I believe the word means "to plough" in Hebrew. I
could swear that there's an Akkadian word /ersitu/ which means "earth". Was
I dreaming? The triliterate is probably more accurately defined as "to
plough".
At any rate, I'm not so sure that this is our source for "red". I can't see
how Semitic *T (voiceless dental affricate) can become IE *dh. We already
have a correspondance of Semitic *T- -> IE *(s)t- in the word for "bull".
I'd expect IE *-s- or *-t-. Also, how do we explain the *-eu- part of the
word in IE?
I'm personally looking for a different Semitic word that looks like
**eru:-Vdu "copper" where **eru: (attested in Akkadian as /eru:/) signifies
"metal" and **Vdu describes the quality of the metal.
It's also clear that the accent of this Semitic word fall on the second
syllable (or, to be more clear on Semitic accentuation: on the long vowel).
Why? We can reconstruct Mid IE *ereude based on IE where *e equals schwa. If
the accent was on the first syllable of the Semitic (or Semitish) word, we
would normally obtain Mid IE **erede and we wouldn't see Sumerian /urudu/
but rather */erudu/ because the first vowel would be clear enough to be
perceived properly. Cool, huh?
Help me out, Dennis. Make me look good. Do you know a root like **Vdu, where
V is any vowel and that can help to expose the precise meaning of this
compound?
Dennis to John:
>Why did the Semites have to come from Egypt?
I will put forth a long personal critique of John's admittedly beautiful
maps soon... Don't fret.
Dennis to John:
>Either way, it seems more likely that the AfroAsiatic languages point >of
>departure was Ethiopia, rather than the middle of the Sahara,
Yes, but not of Semitic.
John to Dennis:
>The domesticates for Ubaid were all Middle Eastern in origin, and >Ubaid
>shows a clear derivation from the previous cultures of the >Middle East
>(see above).
(Because Ubaid was Sumerian-speaking and part of the general Nostratic
language area that begat Kartvelian as well...)
- gLeN
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