Re: CHAT: corn (was: [CHAT] Aussie terminology question)

Hi!

Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> writes:
> Quoting "Pascal A. Kramm" <pkramm@...>:
>...
> > In German, "Kornfeld" also exclusively refers to a field with wheat.
Well, no, in German I'd say that 'Kornfeld' is a field where any type
of cereals of the kinds barley, wheat, oats or rye is grown.  A field
of rye could be a 'Kornfeld' (generally) as well as a 'Roggenfeld'
(specifically).

>...
> > Here, "korn" is used exclusively for wheat and *never* for maize. The latter
> > is always "Mais".
'Korn' is literally 'grain' in German.  It can be used collectively to
refer to the kinds of cereals mentioned above, and, that's right,
never to maize (or rice, for instance) when used collectively.  But
there's also a 'Reiskorn' = a 'grain of rice' or a 'Maiskorn' -- 'a
grain(?)  of maize/corn'.

Anyway, I don't think it helps much to compare German 'Korn' to
English 'corn' in a thread about English nomenclature.  It's just
different in German. :-)

> FWIW, in Swedish, _korn_ is barley. Barley was the dominant cereal
> for so long that the original specific name _bjugg_ was simply
> replaced by the originally general _korn_.
Ah, and was it 'cereal' before that generalisation or was it 'grain'?

**Henrik

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