Re: peri-IE (was: Kentum/satem)

 --- Raymond Brown wrote:

> the modern so-called 'Celtic' languages (a term coined in the 18th cent and
> no one has yet been able to give me any evidence that they are related to
> the language spoken by the peoples the Greeks & Romans called Celts - but
> that's another story).
What about Gaulish and Iberian?

> >PIE sister languages? Huh? I didn't think there was anything like that?
>
> Well. there must have been.  Some theorists regard "Hittite" (more properly
> 'Nesite') and related languages like Luwian as forming a
> "peri-Indo-European' branch, i.e. descended from a near sister of PIE.
That's just a matter of terminology! I have no problem with seeing the Hittite
languages like Indo-European languages, that left the family earlier than the
others. It depends largely on the moment you choose for saying: "This is
Proto-Indo-European", and everything related to it are just sister languages.

Jan

=====
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that
happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great
comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." --- J.
Michael Straczynski

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