🚀 go-pugleaf

Yuri Kuchinsky (yuku@mail.trends.ca) wrote:
: Mike Yates (mike@myates.demon.co.uk) wrote:

[deletions]

: : Who? Who suggested? 
: 
: It was Jeffreys.
: 
: : What is "very ancient" in an area where there are NO written records
: older : than 530 years? : The Muslim traders who had been dealing with and
: very occasionally visiting : the Zimbabwean plateau from 1000-1500AD left
: hardly any records, but told : the Portuguese what was inland.  : What is
: important is that it is clear from the Portuguese accounts, which are :
: quite thorough, that there was no corn before they arrived but that it
: spread : very rapidly after they introduced it and took over almost
: entirely from : indigenous crops.
: 
: Jeffreys did a lot of work on Portugese accounts. According to him, they
: confirm that corn was in the Old World before Columbus. I read about this
: (his article in MAN ACROSS THE SEA) a few months ago, and I believe his
: case is valid. I have something about this on my webpage. His case hinges
: on what term exactly the Portugese used for "maize".

I'll go 'round this again.  Linguistic terminology is not
at all helpful.  Terms shift constantly.  Anyone who has
dealt with medieval manuscripts knows this.  If the
case "hinges" on the meaning of a Portuguese word, it
is hopeless.

Let me give you a real example from the real world.  The
word "lance" has had many many different meanings since
the year 1000 AD.  It has meant things as different as 
javelin, spear, and couched lance.  Finding the term in
a manuscript tells you NOTHING unless you can establish the
meaning from other evidence.

[deletions]

     ----- Paul J. Gans  [gans@scholar.chem.nyu.edu]