Re: searching for common words for all today's languages

> > Now I am worried you might be ironic. I _proposed_ (as Rob would

be

> > the first to point out) that the PIE root that is ancestral to

Latin

> > aqua might be _loaned_ from a Sino-Tibetan word ancestral to

Early

> > Middle Chinese kwen' "watering chanel".
>
> There seem to be a few Sino-Tibetan (or perhaps Tibeto-Burman)

words

> that are similar to PIE words, which may be borrowings.
>
> All PST roots are from Matisoff and all PIE roots are from Pokorny
>
> PST *?ay go PIE *ei go
> PST *ba shine, bright PE *bHe (with numerous root determinatives)
> shine, white
> PST *bal tired PIE *bH(e)la:g weak, ridiculous *bHeleu hit, weak,

ill

> *bHleus weak, mild
> PST *pleN flat surface PIE *pel& flat and wide
> PST *pliN full, plenty PIE *pel full
> PST *pWar fire PIE *pewo:r fire
> PST *bya bee, bird PIE *bHei bee
> PST *?-da put, place PIE *dHe: put, place
> PST *daN speech, language PIE *dng'Hu: tongue
> PST *gaw call PIE *g'Hau call
> PST *d-kW&y-n dog PIE *k'won dog
> PST *lay/ley change, exchange, buy, barter PIE *le:(i) grant,
> possession, acquire, possess
>
> I've made no attempt here to be complete. I've merely eyeballed the
> PST wordlist looking for words that looked familiar from PIE.

Before

> you all ask: I am not suggesting a genetic link between PIE and

PST.

Thanks for your reply, etherman. It is generally agreed by most
mainstream anthropologists that homo sapiens sapiens originates in
Africa. That means that all their descendants should have used a
common language somewhere in Africa. There should be a genetic link
between languages. Searching for the common roots should be
justified. Otherwise, there would be no point of the existence of
this discussion group. Aren't we discussing the links among the
present IE languages?