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  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Ethnicity (was Tortillas)
  • Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:25:40 -0700

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












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