Re: glossogenesis (was: Indo-European question)

Tommie L Powell scripsit:

> Before
> tribalization, no band -- no seasonally migrating group of from
> 50 to 150 people -- could have spoken much differently from
> any other nearby band, since each band had to communicate
> with each other such band at various food sources where
> their separate annual migratory circuits overlapped.
This is the Functionalist Fallacy, the assumption that people do things
solely to make their lives better in straightforward material ways.
We observe in Europe today -- or India, even more markedly -- that
village dialects are carefully maintained by people who have every
reason to speak *with* the nimnos down-river, but wouldn't be caught
dead speaking *like* them.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter