In his excellent book _Austronesian root theory_ (1988), Robert BLUST mentions p. 92; root: Dem1; #13: NGG kuro "become dim, be dimmed, darken" Now, Japanese _kuro_ means "black; dark". kuroi "black (adj.)" kurokami "black hair" kuroji "letter/character in black" kurokoge "charred" etc. What do you make of this? Best Jean-Paul POTET