----- Original Message -----
From: "H.M. Hubey" <hubeyh@...>
To: <Nostratica@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Nostratica] Cardinal and Ordinal Integers
> It would be just as easy to construct them as having two separate roots from two separate language families which met someplace and mixed.
Not just as easy, unless you can identify the source. And if the roots in question don't _look_ like loanwords (i.e., if they obey the normal phonotactic constraints of PIE and behave like any "native" morphemes with regard to derivation and inflection), there is no ground for assuming borrowing. Occam would be at you with his razor.
Piotr