In a message dated 17/06/02 11:20:50 GMT Daylight Time, jeffco@...
writes:

> Even I can see that just pointing at various names whose initial
> phoneme (if phoneme's the right term) or initial syllable happens
> to be the same, or similar, or vaguely similar, doesn't form the
> basis of a satisfactory argument, let alone proof. As you imply,
> a series of such similarities could be explained merely as a series
> of coincidences.
> ...
> However, it's the combination of that evidence, in conjunction with
> the two traditions about a flood and/or an ancestor figure, that I
> find so curious. Is it possible that the examples cited above
> could really have developed independently along parallel lines?

The way that the mathematics of it works, it isn't so much a
question of having a multiplying series of improbable occurrences
that each combine, it's more a question of having a multiplying
series of possibilities which allow for the 'coincidences' to
happen. You've only mentioned matches which fit your hypothesis.
The whole set of possibilities is all of the mythological characters
in all of the cultures of the world (all of which have ancestor
figures and many of which have flood myths). Your matches are as
yet nowhere near the 7% that should be expected on the grounds of
probability. If you did more research, then you would eventually
reach roughly this maximum. If you decided you wanted to assemble
a list of mythological characters with similar names starting with
letters other than N, you would also be able to produce a list for
them in the same way as you have for N.

>> Sorry, but I don't think it's plausible without other evidence.
>
> But did you mean linguistic evidence, or more examples from
> myth/tradition plus name, or evidence of some other nature?

I mean explain by what mechanism the name spread, and what evidence
there is for this actually having happened. As I have tried to show,
the facts you have come up with so far are well within what might
be expected by chance and even a large number of additional examples
would not be persuasive in themselves.


Ed.