Re: A new Indo-European subfamily in China

I *believe* that it only claims NORTH Caucasian.  I believe South Caucasian
or Kartvelian is included in Nostratic.

Adam

>From: Marcus Smith <smithma@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: A new Indo-European subfamily in China
>Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 16:48:43 -0800
>
>E-Ching Ng wrote:
>
>>Swedish, Lithuanian and classical Greek are definitely pitch-accent, and I
>>suspect Serbo-Croatian is too.  Punjabi just might be tonal.  It's almost
>>close enough to the Himalayas for that to have caught on, but that's still
>>a little far off.
>
>According to Comrie's "The World's Major Languages":
>
>Serbo-Croat has phonemic falling and rising tone in stressed syllables
>only. There is apparently only opposition between the two in initial
>position. So this would be a marginal tone system.
>
> >I'm curious as to how Sino-Tibetan tones developed from Sino-Caucasian,
>> >since North Caucasian languages are usually non-tonal (but much more
>> >complex in consonant phonologies).
>>
>>I am in the dark about Sino-Caucasian ... what are the Caucasian
>>languages, and how certain is it that they're related to Sino-Tibetan?
>
>Caucasian languages are spoken in the Caucus Mountains, in the area of the
>Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Turkey, and Iran. They include the famous language
>Georgian, which is the most commonly mentioned language from the family.
>
>As for the connection between Caucasian langauges and Sino-Tibetan, it is
>debated whether the Caucasian languages form a valid group, much less be
>connected with Sino-Tibetan.  The only firm concencus at this point is that
>the North Caucasian languages are related, and the South Caucasian
>languages are related. Some people claim the Northern and Southern families
>are related, but that is an unresolved issue at this point. So, unless
>Sino-Caucasian refers to a connection with only one of these two families
>(which I suppose it could), there is no certainty to the proposal at all.
>
>
>
>===============================
>Marcus Smith
>AIM:  Anaakoot
>"When you lose a language, it's like
>dropping a bomb on a museum."
>   -- Kenneth Hale
>===============================
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