Re: Contemporaneous protolanguages

From:    Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
> Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:
> > My understanding is that PAA is usually situated far to the South,
> > somewhere near the Red Sea.  It's clear that Akkadian started
> > arriving from southward into Sumerian-speaking lands, and the
> > overall center of gravity of PAA is along the Red Sea, but other
> > than these facts I don't know anything very specific about it.
>
> From southward? What I've read of Mesopotamian history rather seemed
> to suggest they came from the north or west; what evidence is there to
> allow us to tell, anyway?
I'm just reporting what Gene Gragg here at the Oriental Institute
told me.  He works on precisely Afro-Asiatic linguistics,
especially Southern Semitic languages like Ge'ez, and Cushitic
and Omotic languages.  Like I said, I don't know the details behind
the argument. (He also teaches courses on Hurrian, which is the
context in which I got to know him best.) I can email him for the
details if you like.

Here's his website:
<http://humanities.uchicago.edu/depts/nelc/facultypages/gragg/index.html>

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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