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Re: THEORY: A possible Proto-World phonology

From:BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 28, 2000, 16:53
At 17:49 28.6.2000 +0200, Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:

>The huge dispersion of Indo-European --- even huger if you include its >Nostratic cousins --- does give the impression that if we could but go >one 'layer' deeper, we must find relationships over even larger areas, >and that the whole world could be covered in a few easy steps.
IMO Nostratic is non-provable (and improbable) for the very reasons you give(*). (*Among others: if IE originated in Europe/the Pontic Steppe/Iran and Afroasiatic in Egypt-Ethiopia (i.e. along the Nile, with Semitic entering Asia thru Arabia) they can't very well be related. Similar reservations apply to Elamo-Dravidian vs. IE. OTOH I'm not adverse to the idea that Fenno-Ugric and IE are related (witness the pronominal stems!), and then the similarities between FU and Altaic are well known. Thirdly: since reading Dixon I believe the IE case is atypical in more than one way, but written attestation shortly after the breakup -- incl. anatolian, which is probably an early break-off group -- is the main one.) /BP -- B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melroch@mail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__ A h-ammen pennuid i phith! \ \ __ ____ ____ _____________ ____ __ __ __ / / \ \/___ \\__ \ /___ _____/\ \\__ \\ \ \ \\ \ / / / / / / / \ / /Melroch\ \_/ // / / // / / / / /___/ /_ / /\ \ / /Melarocco\_ // /__/ // /__/ / /_________//_/ \_\/ /Eowine__ / / \___/\_\\___/\_\ Gwaedhvenn Angelmiel\ \_____/ / a/ /_adar Merthol naun ~~~~~~~~~Cuinondil~~~\_______/~~~\__/~~~Noolendur~~~~~~ || Lenda lenda pellalenda pellatellenda cuivie aiya! || "A coincidence, as we say in Middle-Earth" (JRR Tolkien)