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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: "Lap" unique to English?/Hungarian similar
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Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 16:44:21 GMT
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In article <332F8082.4862@4dcomm.com>,
Fred Hamori  <millenia@4dcomm.com> wrote:
>D Gary Grady wrote:
>> 
>> I am curious to know if English is unique in having a word for "lap"
>> -- which means something like the upper legs and lower abdomen of a
>> seated person and sometimes the area above it.
>> 
>In Hungarian to sit is called "l" and the lap thus created by the bent 
>thigh is similarly "l". However to stand stationary is to "l".
>All of which is curious because it does resemble la-p a bit. 
>
>Its like so many other strange coincidences which makes one think that
>the protolanguage enthusiasts must have something, 

There's nothing "strange" about coincidences like these at all; in fact,
they're so unremarkably common as to be banal.  If you really believe in
"proto-World", what should be "strange" is the fact that none of the other
words for lap yet posted bear the slightest resemblance to either "oel" or
"lap", which hardly bear any resemblance to each other.

>because the current language families had their ancestral language
families that joined languages that today are considered "separate".

>Fred Hamori


-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
