Re: Romanian Swadesh list

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, g <george.st@...> wrote:

>
> >But a Swadesh list by convention must be restricted to one

dialect (in this

> >case standard Romanian),
>
> Well, then in standard (i.e. ... artificial :-)) Romanian,

<femeie> is the

> most common word; otherwise rather <muiere> and... <fumeie> +

<fimeie>.

>
> >and give only one form (the most common, "normal" one) per entry.

The big IE study (Dyen et al.) allowed multiple forms, presumably on
the grounds that it was better than tossing a coin. There's a guide
that says you should take the first form listed in a foreign
language dictionary. That's fine unless there's a systematic bias
in the order of presentation. I wouldn't be surprised if X-Romanian
dictionaries biased one towards Latin; English-Thai dictionaries
seem to bias one towards Sanskrit.

> Yeah, but look at <odorare, annusare>; <craindre, avoir peur>;
> <frukta, rädas>; <dividere, separare>; <scindere, partiri>;
> <asciutto, secco>; <aguzzo, afillato>; <agudo, afilato>.
>
> BTW: <sharp> -- Lat. <acer>. But Rum. <acru> means "sour". So, if I
> include <iute> for "sharp" (e.g. in chili con carne), then I have

to drop

> <acru>, and no one sees this reflex of <acer>. (On top of that, of

course

> that all kind of... acritudes must be... acid and... sour. :-)

But the Swadesh 'sharp' is 'sharp' as in a 'sharp knife'! It's
painful having to put down a loanword when the native word is still
in use.

> > >>person om
> > >
> > >?!?
> >
> >I'm not a native speaker. In Spanish, <hombre> is the general

term for man

> >and human being.
>
> That's <om> in Romanian. But Engl. <person> is Rum. <persoana>.

(And

> <male> is <barbat> in Romanian; <om> gets this meaning only in

certain

> cases, yet hardly in the stiffest standard style. :-))

And I have argued that the English word for 'person' is <man>, which
would knock the Romance score down. On the other hand, the Romance
word 'people' would probably be the appropriate gloss for *'persons'
(presumably plural nouns are *not* on the list). And in colloquial
English, I think the word for 'belly' should be <tummy>, a Romance
word of Greek origin, so it's swings and roundabouts. (The
alternative would be <stomach>).

Richard.