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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

>  
>
> > When playing Scrabble in Mexico when I was a kid I found that the other 
> > kids did not know the word "haba" (which I only knew from a 
> > dictionary).  Their big sister had to explain it to them.
> >    
>
> While the word 'haba' isn't in common use, the word 'habena' (little bean) 
> is.  The words 'haba' and 'habena' refer to all types of beans, not just favas.
They're surely marketing "habas peladas" these days.

>  
> Many Latin words that begin with 'f' changed to 'h' in Spanish while 
> remaining 'f' in the other Romance languages.
>
> faba   =      fava        =        haba
> facere =     facer       =        hacer
> folia    =     foil          =        hoja
> ferum  =     ferro       =         hiero
>
> etc.
>  
I knew I wrote something wrong with Lat. "fava" but was a bit bleary 
eyed.  Isn't faba the scientific species name, Vicia faba (vicia = vetch)?

In some words the transition from f to h is not complete.  The example 
most people would know falls into this category: Hernando = Fernando.

> The word 'frijole' is from the genus name of new world beans 'phaseolus'   
> which is derived from the Greek word 'phaselos' (chickpea).  It became 
> 'faseolus' in Latin, then 'fesol' in early Spanish.  'Fesol' became 'fresol' then 
> 'frijol'.
>
> I would have thought that 'frijole' was just yet another Nahuatl word ending 
> in 'tl' that the Spanish couldn't pronounce.   But such is not the case.
One day I was meditating on feijoas, flageolets, and fagiolini, and 
realized there just couldn't be 3 Romance cognates for "frijol" and yet 
still be Nahuatl.  I ran to my Modern Greek grammar and found "phake" 
translated as lentil, and realized that "phaseolos" was probably its 
diminutive, the source for all these words.  Notice how in French it has 
the inserted l sound, similar to Spanish.

Going back the other direction, Latin "faba" is also related to Russian 
"bob", and to Germanic "bauno" (bean).  The original Indo-European word 
"bha" took on several suffixes in the various subfamilies.  You'll find 
that "bh" becomes Latin "f" and Greek "ph" in many other words.  Now, 
I'm pretty sure that only one kind of Old World bean will grow at all in 
Russia, so far north, and reliably set viable seed.  The fact that 
"faba" and "bob" are so similar, and yet obviously neither is borrowed 
from the other, suggests that V. faba was already known among 
Indo-Europeans in S. Russia 4000 years ago.  When the people who would 
eventually become the Romans and Greeks entered the Mediterranean region 
from the north, they already knew them well.

There was no reason for Indo-Europeans to bring their bean cultivation 
to India, and it appears that they didn't, since it's so hot there, and 
the local split-pea "dal" of various types is a whole culinary world 
unto itself.  The "bh" sound is usually preserved in Sanskrit, so "dal" 
is probably not a related word, but one might wonder if "bha" has any 
cognates in Sanskrit.

I couldn't find anything on lime-treated favas, but I don't notice that 
trade secrets are abundantly given out on-line, unless someone just 
happens to post something on a topic as specific as bean skinning.  It's 
easier just to try it with a few beans.

Bill
S. Oregon coast