--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...>
wrote:
> More illogic! If /ma/ was lost, how could it be reintroduced? How
lost could
> that be?
Don't forget bilingualism. In our family, the baby word for 'food' is
Chinese - my wife interpreted some of our daughter's babbling as being
this Chinese word, and wondered how she could know it.
I woudn't be surprised if the Germanic p-word for 'daddy' were due to
Latin _pater_ - any disproofs? As for _daddy_ itself - might not that
derive from the /d/ of OE _fæder_ 'father'?
Tai offers a plausible example of re-introduction of /m-/ in the
'mummy' word. The Tai-Kradai languages are plausibly seen as related
to the Austronesian languages (possibly even related to the
Malayo-Polynesian languages), in which the mother words typically
starts with n-. Tai has a distinctly Chinese-like word, *mE_B (B =
tone class) 'mother', and the Tai languages have a heavy Chinese
influence, e.g. the number system. SW Tai for maternal grandmother is
*naai_A, FWIW. (Other Tai branches indicate *taai_A, possibly under
the influence of *taa_A 'maternal grandfather', which has plausible
Munda, Mon-Khmer and Austronesian cognates; Thai itself appears to
reflect **jaai_A, assumed to be contamination by (*)jaa_B 'paternal
grandmother', which goes back to Proto-Tai-Kadai *jaa_C (majority vote
on the tone!).)
Richard.