Piotr, thanks for checking.
I can't respond at the moment, I'm mostly not disagreeing with what you said.

This might be of interest:
[tech.groups.yahoo.com]
DDeden


Piotr Gasiorowski Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DDeden Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Right, it was an example of how English may
> have
> > gotten some words from Egypt via French
> trade.
> > eg. English: O-cean <- French: Eau-Sea-n
> <-
> > AE: Sn.
> > I didn't mean AE pronounced it O-Sn.
>
> Are you just joking or do you mean it? French
> "eau" is a direct descendant of Latin "aqua".
> English "sea" is a Germanic word (reconstructed as
> *saiwiz), once thought to have been borrowed from
> a lost non-Indo-European language of Northern
> Europe, but now derived at least by some linguists
> from the Indo-European root *seikW- 'flow out'.
> Neither of them has anything in common with
> Egyptian or with the word "ocean". I suppose one
> doesn't have to be a historical linguist to know
> where the latter comes from. Its Latin form was
> "o:ceanus" (the "c" was pronounced in Classical
> times) -- a borrowing from Greek, where "O:keanós"
> meant the mythical great river encompassing the
> Ancient Greeks' discworld (and its divine
> personification). AE "Sn" could express the same
> concept, but the only other thing it has in common
> with "O:keanós" is the sound . You can't prove
> anything by comparing words at random and
> speculating about accidental similarities between
> Modern English and Ancient Egyptian.
>
> Piotr Gasiorowski
>
>
>