Iroquoian 'corn'

[David Kaufman]

Hi,

As the title suggests, this is really not a Siouan question but an Iroquoian one, since I know we have a few Iroquoianists here on the List.  My question is this: the Cherokee word for corn is 'selu'; are the words for corn in Northern Iroquoian similar or different?  Also, it seems that the Cherokee word 'selu' may somehow be borrowed from Uto-Aztecan 'xilo'.  Does anyone have any thoughts on how Cherokee could have borrowed this term from Uto-Aztecan? Esp. since no Uto-Aztecan borrowing for corn seems to occur in any other Southeastern language that I know of.  (Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.)  Thanks.

Dave



      
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