Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

david,

i agree with your word association list in general. the problem is 
that in this list one never knows which came first: the egg or the 
hen. for example,

> /eKaR (????) "(digger =>) farmer" from KaRaH (???) "to dig."
> Cordially,
> David Kolinsky
> Monterey CA

i am not aware of the etymology "digger" for IKAR, and KRH is never used in BH
with agricultural connotations, as far as i remember. what IKARIM did was
called XR$, ZR(, (DR, (ZK, SQL etc. on the contraty, it was gatherers-hunters
which dug, both roots and traps, rather than farmers. it is this context
(traps) which is most used in BH. 
thus the relation IKAR --> KARAH is not a natural one.

actually, i believe that "KAR,KUR" had a rather generic meaning in akkadian:

                 field, meadow, mountain, mountain pass, turn pike, 
                 ore mine, border, distant military post,...

and both IKAR and KARAH probably derived from there. now, the origin of
KAR,KUR is not known to me but may have IE parallels (greek agora, latin
agriculture, russian gora=mountain etc etc) and maybe even hebrew HAR.

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also, i am surprised you did not comment in your list on a possible connection
between AXAZ and EXAD.

best
nir cohen