Single origin of agriculture?

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From: "tgpedersen"
Date: Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:51 am
Subject: Single origin of agriculture ?


*bar-/*bur- "grain, cereal" Semitic

*barr-/*burr- Semitic
burru "cereal" Akkadian
bar "cereal" Hebrew
ba:r "cereal" Hebrew
burr- "wheat" Arabic
br "wheat" South Arabian
bor "wheat" Soqotri
barr "wheat" Mehri
barr "wheat" S^h.eri

*bVr- Berber
a-Bar-&n "flour" Ghadames
&Br-u:n "sorghum" Awjila
a-bora "sorghum" Ayr
a-bo:ra "sorghum" Ahaggar
a-bo:ra "sorghum" Tawlemmet
bu:ru "bread" Zenaga

*bar-/*bur- West Chadic
biri "kind of flour" Hausa
with assimilation of vowels >
buri "kind of flour" Hausa
redupl.
barbari "gruel" Ngizim

*bar-/bur- East Chadic
bura "flour" Sumray
bar^ "flour" Tumak
derivative with *ku-
ku-b&ra "flour" Kabalay
ku-bra "kind of millet" Lele

*bur- "groats" Agaw
bura "groats" Xamir

*bur- "wheat" Lowland
East Cushitic
bur "wheat" Somali

b.uru "maize" Dahalo

*bar- "grain" Rift
baru "grain" Burunge

Alternation *a ~ *u.


bUrU "millet" Old Bulgarian
borU "millet" Russian
extended with -s-
barizeins "barley" Gothic
b�ros^no "rye flour" Russian
bra:s^Ino "food, fare" Old Bulgarian

farr- "spelt, grits" Latin


#mblut "unhulled rice, sticky rice" Proto-Miao-Yao
*m-lut "glutinous millet" Old Chinese
*Ba:? "rice (general)" Proto-Austro-
Asiatic
*bra:s "husked rice" Proto-Chamic

*beRas "husked rice" Proto-Austronesian


Robert Blench (From the Mountains to the Valleys):
"Once down the A[ustronesia]n family tree as far as
P[roto-]M[alayo-[Polynesian], words associated with rice
become very numerous and reconstruction more certain.
This situation would be best explained by supposing that the
early A[ustronesia]n migrants to Formosa had both upland
rice and millets, but that the millets were central to their
agriculture and indeed their ritual calendar...
There would be nothing very surprising about this; hill-rice
is a minor opportunistic crop among many mountain peoples in
Southeast Asia up to the present. The earliest rice [with
Austronesians! Earliest find in China ca 10,000 to 7,000 BC. TP]
occurs archaeologically at 2,500 BC, first in the Taiwan straits and
then in Taiwan proper, rather late for it to be a key A[ustronesia]n
crop."
(see http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Opr.html)

Myself:
There is of course no early rice in Europe, but maybe someone once
tried to introduce it and left no trace? Cf.

*pajay, *pag`ey, *paj&i, *p�gey, various reconstructions for "rice
plant", Proto-Austronesian,
cf English (rice) paddy < Malay pa:di:, loaned(?) as pre-PIE *padam,
PIE *pedom?
(see http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/pd.html)
It would be interesting to find ancient rice on the river Padanus
(where there's plenty of it now). It always puzzled me why PIE *pak-
*pag- seemed to have to do with construction in or near water

Pagin >
Peine town in North West Germany
at the confluence of the
Pisser and Fuhse rivers Nordwestblock
Pein farm on the Pinnau river
in Holstein Nordwestblock
Pahin-, Pagindrecht >
Pendrecht deserted village near
Rotterdam Nordwestblock
fakin "weir for catching fish" Old Norse

(see http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/HbHpHg.html)


Torsten