From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 48276
Date: 2007-04-07
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
Richard Wordingham wrote:
> > Of course, plain coincidence can occur - Austronesian _mati_ 'die'
> > looks a lot lile Pali _mata_ 'dead', but Maori _mate_ 'die' indicates
> > that this is a coincidence.
> And it looks also like the corresponding Semitic root.
> How about this scenario: OIT plus Austronesian colonization of the
> Indian coasts?
I'll stick to the conventional scenario:
Pali: Mata 2. [pp. of marati, mr.] dead. < PIE *mer
Proto-Afroasiatic: *mawVt - not only Semitic, but also Egyptian mwt,
Berber forms mostly &mm&t (& = schwa), and Chadic (e.g. Hausa _mútù_).
See http://tinyurl.com/2dtvoh for the entry in the Tower of Babel's
Afroasiatic database.
Richard.