Hello languagelover, you'll see a commonality with the folks here.

Off the cuff...

The more basic the word the more likely a kinship and a common orgin with other languages. "Ma" and "Pa" are the base of basic and many of the World's languages pronounce the sounds with a similarity.

In fact a linguist at Berkley claims that she can date mankind's dispersal throughtout this big wide world by the degree of convergence or divergence of a set of fundamental words.

I think that most folk at Berkley are kooks and hippies but this chick might have a worthwhile idea.

Last edited by themilum; 04/04/2007 9:22 PM.