Originally Posted By: Steve
So, the hypothesis that people anciently personified plants can not only explain why Eng pod is transparently cognate with Gk podium, it can also explain why (1))legume is transparently cognate with Gc words for legs, and (2) the Gk and L ancestors pison and pisa, respectively, of the Eng. words pise and pease for the foot-like legume we call a pea clearly reveal they are i-grade variants of Gk pous and L. pes ‘foot’.


But this hypothesis is not falsifiable in your theory, because your theory doesn't account for regular sound change. So you can hypothesize that any number of words are related by making up semantic connections.

All you've done is presented a list of words from different languages that are similar in sound and meaning, or can be made to seem similar in meaning, and claimed that they are all related. I could do the same for any two languages you care to mention. And since in your theory there is no such thing as regular sound change, you don't have to explain any of the sound correspondences. Why not say that root is related to Greek pous and Latin pes as well? After all, you can easily see how a tree could be personified with the roots as the feet.

Last edited by goofy; 06/25/2011 12:08 PM.