Re: NATLANG:Proto-Pontic

On 19 Oct 2003 at 20:27, Joe wrote:

> Well, I know both PIE and Proto-Uralic have accusative -m.  That's an
> interesting coincidence.  I would say that they are probably related, though
> reconstructing a proto-language is out of the question.
There are lots of very old morphemes that are either Proto-stage (or
near-Proto-stage) borrowings, or that show an earlier ancestor. Many
of them are "basic" terms, of the sort that are rarely borrowed in
historically-recorded languages, such as body parts, simple
environmental terms and close familial relationships.

Has anyone performed a Greenburgian "semi-blind" mass comparison of
the languages in the Indo-European and Ural(-Altaic) families,
without regard for which family and subfamily each language is held
to be a member of? If I had access to the dozens of Swadesh lists
that would be required, it might be something I would attack as a
hobby.




Paul