Re: long, flat, full

From: Rick McCallister
Message: 60627
Date: 2008-10-06

--- On Mon, 10/6/08, Arnaud Fournet <fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:

> From: Arnaud Fournet <fournet.arnaud@...>
> Subject: Re: [tied] long, flat, full
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, October 6, 2008, 5:42 PM
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
> > > ============
> > http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Op.html
> > http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Opr.html
> > which is why it is present in so many language
> families (the Peter
> > Bellwood hypothesis).
> > ===========
> What is this hypothesis ?
> Arnaud
> ========
>
> > I don't understand the relationship between your
> references
> > and the words full and flat.
>
> The *akW/p- root is the primeval river.
> The *bh/p/-l/r- root is crossing the river, dividing stuff,
> going
> across the river of life and death, etc. The various
> *plen,- etc stuff
> has to do with dividing space, surface, line into two, to
> create a
> bounded space, surface, line, and so is semantic subfield
> of the
> *bh/p-l/r- root.
> ======
> I still do not understand what 'river' and
> 'divide' have to do with 'full'
> and 'flat'.
> Arnaud
> =========

It depends on the topography. In areas like the US Midwest, many rivers are often flat and serve to divide, given that they are often too low to navigate when it's dry and often too dangerous to navigate during intense rainy spells.
See the Platte River, orginally called Nbithaska or Nebraska "flat water"
This kind of river is more common on the steppe than the prairie in the US