Yams/Sweet Potatoes

[David Bergdahl]

from larry horn quoting barry popik:

>...   Confusion may have arisen because the African word, _nyami_ or
_unyam_
>(which means "to eat") was used by slaves to refer to the sweet potatoes
>being grown by Colonial settlers.

I always love it when they say that.   Now what was the European word
for "to eat" again?  And the Asian word for "sweet potato"?
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I've always thought it odd but my Bavarian mother-in-law (b. 1910)  insisted
that nyam-nyam was the childish way kids appreciated a good tasting
husarkrapfen!  It reminds me of what Swadesh used to say--that the Zuni word
for "blood" was the same as the Hebrew-- that chance coincidences do occur.
-db
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"Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber Boshaft ist er nicht"
--Albert Einstein