Re: Single origin of agriculture ?

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

> *bar-/*bur- "grain, cereal" Semitic

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> *bVr- Berber

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> *bar-/*bur- West Chadic
> biri "kind of flour" Hausa

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> with assimilation of vowels >

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

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> *bur- "wheat" Lowland
> East Cushitic

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> bUrU "millet" Old Bulgarian

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> 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?

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> (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.