Oldest words in English?

[Baker, John]

        I'm doubtful that tin has been known long enough to be from a
pre-Indo-European substrate.  Wikipedia says it was used in bronze by
3500 BC, but I doubt if it's much older than that, and I assume that
words from a pre-Indo-European substrate would have to be quite a bit
older.  Apples, badness, and gold, of course, do have the requisite
antiquity, but when one part of a claim is demolished, I tend to look
askance at its remaining parts.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 11:06 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Oldest words in English?

If you're like me, you have in front of you a copy of Norris McWhirter's
_Guinness Book of World Records: New! Giant 1980 Super-Edition!_, and
you're looking at p. 207, which states:

"Some as yet unpublished research indicates some words of a
pre-Indo-European substrate survive in English, including apple (apal),
bad (bad), gold (gol), and tin (tin)."

Comments?

JL

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