Re: Indo-European family tree (was Re: Celtic and Afro-Asiatic?)

Quoting Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>:

> > (What's my pet theory?  There were at least *two* waves of
> > Indo-Europeanization;  one following the agricultural expansion
> > into Europe, and another involving Voelkerwanderungen out of the
> > steppes. The Urheimat under this conception would have been in
> > parts now inundated in the Black Sea, but close to Anatolia,
> > perhaps in modern Bulgaria.  But this is pure speculation, based
> > on little more than a geographic center of gravity, and I don't
> > take this pet theory too seriously.)
>
> Actually, my pet theory is essentially the same, though I place
> the Urheimat of "Macro-IE" in what is now the Bay of Odessa.
> IE proper resulted from the second wave while the first-wave
> "Macro-IE" languages disappeared from the scene, though some may
> still have been spoken in Roman times.  Old Albic is meant to
> represent such a "Macro-IE" language.
If the modern European IE languages all belong to such second wave, how does
this scenario differ meaningfully from what may be called the traditional
scenario of migrations from the steppes? If some do not, why invoke a second
wave at all? When the steppe peoples come into view, the IE languages they
speak are, IIUC, all Indo-Iranian - a branch that did not gain a foothold in
Europe (North Osssetia doesn't count!).

I suppose one could argue that Balto-Slavic, as a Satem branch, belongs with I-I
rather than with Germano-Italo-Celtic; would they represent the second wave?

Tangentially, if memory serves, Renfrew suggested that the Indus Culture was IE.
What do you folks think of that suggestion?

                                                 Andreas

PS I hear that the latest Science has a cladistic study based on linguistic
features (phonemic? morphological?) rather than on words. I'll be looking when
I get to the uni library on Monday.

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