Re: Asian migration to Scandinavia

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:

>
> > If you look carefully at data
> >

<http://newstar.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/si\
\

> > ntib/stibet&text_number=2591&root=config> , you'll see that Sinitic

has

> > an extra /n/ not found in Tibeto-Burman. This made me suspicious

they're

> > actually two different words, one for TB and another for Sinitic.

And

> > while the former is related to the NEC word for 'dog', I think the
> > latter evolved from an older root designating some kind of carnivore

and

> > represented by Yeniseian *ku:n´ (~ g-) 'wolverine' and NEC
> > *h\n@:q'q'w@: (~ *h\q'q'w@:n@) 'mouse, rat'.
>
> Matisoff puts forward two suggestions in his Handbook of

Tibeto-Burman. One is that the -n is a collective suffix, and the other
that Chinese derives from a different PTB word, albeit possibly related,
*kywal 'wild dog, dhole'.

>

I see both suggestions as doubious. I must insist that the
archaeological data makes East Asia as one of the places were dogs were
first domesticated, so the logical conclusion is the word originated
there.