rhotacism from Ray Hickey

[H.M.Hubey]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Ross Clark wrote:
>
> Who can say what is impossible? What is very unlikely is that the
> Hawaiians had a word for honey 200 years ago, since there were no
> honey-bees in Polynesia. The Hawaiian word is in fact a 19th-century
> loanword from Greek, thanks to classically-educated missionaries who
> needed it to translate the Bible.
 
Well, there is nothing like a real test :-)
 
Probability theory can only  tell us if something is likely to be
due to chance, and not whether it was borrowed or descended from
an earlier form of the same language.
 
 
--
Best Regards,
Mark
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