(urth) Grand Unified Theory

[António Pedro Marques]

James Wynn wrote (25-08-2010 15:41):

> The word "typhoon" comes from "Typhon" -- not that it would prevent
> Wolfe from associating the two anyway if he wanted to.

That's actually open to question.
- _Typhon_ is an english spelling pronunciation of greek <tu'fwn>, which 
would be more or less 'two FAWN' [tu'fO:n] if read 'correctly'.
- _typhoon_ is an english transcription of [tai'fun], from some language 
spoken along the margins of the Indic ocean.

Even if one posits that [tai'fun] is ultimately from the greek, one still 
would have to explain how did greek [tu] become [tai]. The english [ai] is 
merely from the english great vowel shift compounded with a misreading of 
greek <y> as [i], which it never was. Had english gotten the word by natural 
borrowing, rather than in misread written form centuries after, it wouldn't 
have [ai].

Not impossible, but unlikely.