> >Comment 2: As Dick pointed out, ancient cultures other than the the
> >one founded by Abraham have names of kings that sound like 'Adam'. One
> >must conclude that the names spead either through descent or contact.
>
> This is not necessarily so. Sometimes transliterations and just plain dumb
> luck account for several of these. For instance, the chinese word for
> mother is
> 'ma' or 'ma ma'. They didn't get their word from English. Similarly,
> Pinker notes:
>
> ". . .the word for "blow" is pneu in Greek and pniw in Klamath (an American
> Indian language spoken in Oregon), or the fact that the word for 'dog' in
> the Australian aboriginal language Mbabaram happens to be dog."
> ~ Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct, (New York: Harper/Perennial,
> 1994), p. 255-256
>
> And Lissner notes:
> "The Polynesian word for sun is ra, and it was not long before certain
> so-called authorities claimed that the Polynesians must at one time have
> lived in Egypt, because Amon Ra was ancient Egypt's sun god." ~ Ivar
> Lissner, The Living Past, translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn, (New York: G.
> P. Putnam's Sons, 1957), p. 233
>
> Coincidences happen even without contact.
Amen. My father was a classical philologist, & after having some of my
"false etymologies" dismantled I'm quite wary of the "sounds like" approach to
linguistic relationships.
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/