Talk:kumar

Relationship with Polynesian?

Is there a relationship between this word and Maori kūmara? 173.88.246.138 00:55, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

Probably. The evidence seems to show that the plant started out in Polynesia as Eastern Polynesian, before contact with Europeans, and that it goes much further back in South America. The obvious conclusion is that there was early contact. I'm inclined to think that a people who ranged over such a huge area of the Pacific and were able to find remote places like Hawaii and Easter Island were quite capable of finding their way to South America and back.

The Polynesian word shows the sound changes one would expect if it had been around since the Eastern Polynesian languages split off from each other. I don't know the history of the Quechua word, so I don't know if it's of South American origin or a borrowing. There was quite a bit of contact between Easter Island and South America during Spanish colonial times, so I would think that colonial or later borrowing would have to be ruled out. Chuck Entz (talk) 02:40, 25 May 2020 (UTC)