Re: a weird question...

alypius wrote:

> >alypius wrote:
> >> Is this their word for dingo, or for dogs in general? I understand that
> the
> >> dingo is Australia's only native canine.  Other dogs were brought by the
> >> English.  Perhaps the Aborigines borrowed "dog" from the English?
> >
> >That word is native, it's mere co-incidence.  It can be shown to come
> >from *gudaga
>
> Assuming the aborigines were all illiterate before the English came, how do
> they show the origin of dog from gudaga? Granted, the etymology sounds
> logical, but many etymologies are only educated guesses.  Does your source
> explain this?  ~alypius
Comparative and Internal evidence, that's how! :)   Let's assume
for the sake of argument that the sequence /gu/ had some morphological
meaning in this language at one point, and that only remnants of this
remain, say, in pronouns (much as grammatical case exists in English
for the most part only in an isolated, closed section of the language,
in pronouns).  Based on a meticulous analysis of how these pronouns
relate to other words, and taking into account possible sound changes
that might have occurred (say, /a/ --> /O/  / _g), you can guess with
a high degree of certainty that, using only the language itself and no
sister languages that might exist, the proper form at one point was
*gudaga.  Similar analysis in English would lead one to the conclusion
that at some point, there was a Great Vowel shift in English words,
as evidenced by such doublets as:

divine : divinity
divise : divisive (when the latter is pronounced [dIvIsIv], not
[dIvajsIv])
etc.

Furthermore, you could look at other related languages to
see what forms they have.  If all of them agree in have some
form that's more like /gudaga/, then it's more than just an
educated guess that we're talking about here. (The word
"guess" seems to imply a certain haphazardness to the process,
but language change is much more often than not the result of
regular, systematic changes that aren't usually conscious to
the speakers involved.)

Of course, you really have to pay close attention to the data.
Since I have no knowledge of the language nor do I know where
I can find some, like Nik I have to say that I can't say anything in
particular about the issue (sorry!) beyond general statements about
how languages change.


=======================================================
Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

Denn wo Begriffe fehlen,
Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein.
   -- Mephistopheles, in Goethe's _Faust_
========================================================