I wish I knew what you're driving at,
Torsten. Intervocalic t > d > r is a common change, while r > t is not,
so if you find, say, <tata> and <tara> in related languages,
<tata> is a priori more likely to be the older form. Would you like
to suggest that in pre-Proto-Bantu Niger-Congo languages there was
something like *tVrV for "three"? Please give some evidence to justify such a
reconstruction.
As for Bantu being part of Niger-Congo,
it's by no means certain that Niger-Congo is a valid family with a single
ancestral protolanguage, rather than an areal grouping. I didn't give
Proto-Niger-Congo forms, since they are not reconstructible. Bantu numerals
(including Swahili tatu 'three') have often been borrowed into non-Bantu
languages, and Semitic numerals have been borrowed all over the place (e.g.
Swahili sita, saba for "6, 7", borrowed from Arabic; BTW, look at the Zompist
collection and you'll find that the numeral "six" sometimes appears in
Niger-Congo as sVdV or sVrV, with the same development of the original -t- as is
seen in the "three" word). Africa is one enormous diffusion area. There is, and
has always been, a lot of borrowing going on in it. But if you'd like to add
Austronesian to that melting pot, the burden of the proof is on you. A mere
suggestion doesn't qualify as a demonstration.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2001 3:56 PM
Subject: [nostratic] Re: ouralique et IE
Proto-Bantu-X+ *-mó *-bàdé *-tátò *-nà *-táánò
That
is not the "proto-language". It is Proto-Bantu. Bantu is part
of the
Niger-Congo languages.
You did say in an earlier posting that the -r-
might be derived from
a -t-. I don't think that qualifies as an
"explanation"
Torsten