From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 16820
Date: 2002-11-21
----- Original Message -----
From: tgpedersen
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 5:01 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: The "n" in ALAN
> Also, you wouldn't believe it, but someone tried to pull the same stunt in the Austronesian group, but he gave away the show by revealing the trick: it's actually Russian <par> (m.) "steam" and <xod> "walk" as in Polish <samochod>, a contraption which will self-walk you to the supermarket. I don't think it's nice to pretend you can't divide a root you present as indivisible.
I'm not pretending anything (sorry for not revealing my trick on this list -- I simply sent the posting too hastily). The "match" is after all in my collection of _accidental_ lookalikes, and its being analysable in Russian only proves beyond all doubt that this is a case of spurious cognacy. The similarity is striking all the same, isn't it? and a person who knows no Russian would easily be taken in. I suppose quite a few of the Austronesian words you quote are likewise analysable in terms of the source language, and most of them _can_ and _should_ be analysed etymologically, though of course this would mean doing some real research. In a list of raw data you can expect any number of spurious matches like "parahu : paroxod".
Piotr