Re: Evidence for Nostratic? (was Re: Proto-Uralic?)

John Cowan wrote:


> Andreas Johansson scripsit:
>
> > > Then again, as JRRT mentions, there is the deeply mysterious root
> > > korb-, which surfaces in Italic as Latin corvus 'raven, crow' and
> > > in Germanic as "harp"!  What is up with *that*?
> >
> > Homophony?
Is that quite true?? Latin -v- < *b or *bh??? Onomatopoeia?
>
> Either that, or neither word is PIE.  But in either case, an astounding
> bizarrerie.  >
> > > (ModE "harp", BTW, is only partly a descendant of OE "hearpe"; it
> > > probably owes its vowel to French "harpe", which is itself a
> > > Common Romance borrowing from Germanic.)
> >
Very strange indeed.  Surely the harp was known in the Mediterranean world
before the Germans showed up...Egyptian tomb paintings, Biblical refs.,
Greeks....Why would Later Latin need to borrow the word????

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