Reconstructions

Note

This comparison was first noted by Zorc (1986:163). It was then discussed by Donohue and Denham (2009:303ff) who, however, attempted to connect the legitimate cognate set cited here with a large number of other forms in western and eastern Indonesia, Papua, mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia, and even the Middle East (Pashto) based solely on phonetic similarity. The highly speculative ethnobotanical hypothesis they propose based on this is simply not supported by scientifically reliable linguistic evidence.