phonetic resemblances etc.

[Alexis Manaster-Ramer]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------


On Sun, 31 Jan 1999, Robert Whiting wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> On Sat, 30 Jan 1999, Larry Trask wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > >            Mamulique   Garza      Comecrudo
> > >
> > >  woman     kem        kem        kem
>
> Obviously borrowed from Sumerian geme 'woman' :)
>
> Seriously, if the Sumerian is coincidence, how can the others be put
> forth as evidence of genetic relationship?
>
Now here is a good question for a scholar I admire very
much. And the answer is simple, and it follows from
what Johanna Nichols so elegantly explained earlier.
The more coincidences we find, the less likely they
are to be coincidences.  If you could find Sumerian
matches for all these words, then you would have
a point.  As it is, you do not.

Alexis