> The precise nature of our reaction to cows'
> milk is vital to the story. If it had been slightly more violent, we
> might never have discovered the stuff and the world would have been
a
> different place, or at least my world would.
The whole idea of robbing another mammal's baby food is yucky from the
start. I think this is the way it might have happened:
1) Milking domesticated cattle to relieve cows that lost their calf.
2) Saving the product for a calf that has trouble feeding itself.
3) Trying the accidentally fermented product as another alcoholic
beverage
4) Using the fresh product itself.
That would explain why the noun is secondary to the verb. It would
also reduce the semantic span of Ruhlen's *mlk- word (milk :: jaw ->
to milk, feed :: jaw)
Torsten