Re: Catastrophism and syllable structure

charles wrote:

> Padraic Brown wrote:
>
> > > >      * There was a cataclysmic flood into the Black Sea
> > > >      circa 5600 BC, causing dispersion of Proto-Indo-European.
>
> > It does make for a neat and tidy theory, though; apparently explains =
how
> > the Anatolians got to Turkey; and gives a pretty damn good reason for=
 the
> > IE speakers to pick up and get as far away as they could!
>
> So, what if The Flood were that event?
> Gilgamesh, Genesis ...
Of course, that came to mind immediately.  It doesn't,however, explain st=
ories of Noah
figures in the Americas,
and elsewhere. :)

> If the resemblance between Semitic and IE pronouns
> is also based on reality, then even the crackpot
> theory of Nostratic gains some plausibility.
Well, actually, Nostratic is one of the liklier of the Velikovskianisms.M=
errit Ruhlen (I
think he's at Berkley) has done a lot of work on both
his and Greenberg's analyses, and while it's not at all sure in any way,
and is still considered the perennial "way-out" theory, there sure are a
lot of romantic people who would like to believe in it. Who's right?;
Who knows?

> What about the other languages of the Caucasus,
> particularly the consonant-heavy ones?
What about them?

> If cats teach anything, it is laziness. Soon,
> agriculture was invented so that nobody had to
> leave the warm basin. However, there were snakes.
Er, agriculture *increases* workload from hunter-gatherer societies. :)


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Tom Wier <twier@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

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cynes / w=EAold w=EEde-ferh=F0."
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