On Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 3:36 PM mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun@gmail.com> wrote:
Reading the above, I don't think that {'oQqar} could apply to the roots of a tree.
Why not? The gloss has "root" right in there. Not "root, but only one you can eat". Not "root, but only one from a small plant". Botanically speaking, out of the four examples we know from TNK (*'anyan 'oQqar* "onion", *gharlIq 'oQqar* "garlic", *patat 'oQqarmey* "potatoes", and *qe'rot 'oQqar* "carrot"), only carrots are technically roots, and only potatoes are technically tubers. Garlic and onions are bulbs. (And bulbs and tubers are apparently modified stems. This is all very complicated.) I don't think *'oQqar* is a very botanically-strict term. Based on the glosses "root" and "tuber", and the four examples from Earth vegetables, it seems like the meaning of *'oQqar* is mostly "part of a plant that's underground and maybe you can eat it". There's no reason it couldn't apply to a tree root. But that's ok, since I *really* like the {wutlh Sor 'ay'mey}.
*va, **'Iq mu'meyvetlh!*