Re: Thagojian to split

The split of Thagojian, and each of its branches' linguistic
histories, sounds really interesting, and I'm going to be keeping an
eye out for details as they appear.

How about a third branch that heads southeast and ends up in the
Southeast Asian highlands, surrounded by TB and Mon-Khmer speakers? :)

(Horrors of Sumerian? I beg your pardon. Horrors of PIE!)

K.

> On 11/30/06, Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> wrote:
>> Thagojian is going to split.
>>
>> One branch is going to be a PIE language that grows up among Turkic
>> neighbors. I'm preparing to start learning more about Altaic, Uralic,
>> Georgian, Armenian, Arabic, Pashto and Russian (and probably OCS). I
>> foresee a three-way vowel harmony (front vs round vs open) and a
>> decently-sized set of consonants. Maybe some consonant harmony,
>> too...
>>
>> The other branch is going to remain what the original project was: a
>> PIE language that drifted down into Mesopotamia, up the rivers, and
>> into the Levant, picking up traces of Sumerian, Akkadian, Aramaic,
>> Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Coptic (and plausibly Ancient Egyptian,
>> Persian, Punic and Latin, too). I'm getting sick and tired of trying
>> to shoehorn vowel harmony and a decent PIEoid inflectional structure
>> into something that essentially is swamped by Semitic languages (and
>> the horrors of Sumerian). I will let nature run its course far less
>> impeded than I had been.
>>
>> Both projects are going to require a decent amount of study and
>> research, which is one my main reasons for indulging in the secret
>> vice anyway, so yaye. I plan to start by burying myself in my ARTANES
>> Sumerian tutorial (so far I'm 0 for 2 trying to get past the first
>> couple of chapters -- wish me luck!), and picking up a copy of _The
>> Turkic Languages_ from Routlegde. Maybe I can get 'er indoors to
>> consider getting me a copy for $WINTERHOLIDAY (or %WinterHoliday% if
>> you're that way inclined).
>>
>> I will also need a new name for one or both of the projects.
>>
>>
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> PS: Sorry for any wacky line-wrapping. 'Tis the fault of this webmail
>> interfac
>> e.
>>