Thank you, Glen, for the exhausting answer on my question concerning the
degree of the Vasconic - NE Caucasian relations. I only have a few minor
"side" questions.
[Glen]:
> This would of course mean that the Vasconics (what I like to call the
> pre-Basques) were spread out into a larger area than they are now and must
> have been part of the pre-existing languages before the arrival of
> agriculture by people, possibly speaking Semitish languages (Semitic words
> exist in Basque like /sei/ "six" and /zazpi/ "seven" that can't be
explained
> easily as being loaned from Latin or other IndoEuropean languages.)
You use both terms - "Semitish" and "Semitic". Is there difference between
them?
Would not it be more correct to discuss a possible Afro-Asiatic influence on
Vasconic rather than the Semitic/Semitish one? I could expect rather a
Berber-like influence (because of pure geographical reasons).
Are there Semitic or any Afro-Asiatic traces in the ancient European
toponimics?
>
> These European Semitish languages would have finally began to decline
> starting 4500 BCE with the spread of IndoEtruscan migrants from the
> Pontic-Caspian area via land migration (Kurgan I) and possibly also
> crossings of the Black Sea (Pelasgian, in part?), speaking Tyrrhenian
> dialects that would eventually become Etruscan, Rhaetian and Lemnian.
As far as I know you believe that Proto-Nostratic community existed
somewhere in the Near/Middle East and PIE - in the North Pontic area. So do
I (the difference only in some details and dates). It is given that IE and
Etruscan (Tyrrhenian) are the closest Nostratic brothers. The question -
where and when did they parted? If I understand you right, your answer is:
Tyrrhenian went from the North Pontic area c. 4500 BC when PIE stayed there.
I'm afraid some difficulties with chronology and archaeology can arise here.
What do you (and other list members) think about the variant with the
parting of PIE and Proto-Thyrrhenian somewhere in South Caucasus c. 6000 BC?
Thereafter a well traced way leads PIE to lower Dnieper (the Sura and then
Sredny Stog cultures with domestic horses). On the other hand, in the Early
Bronze Age (c. 3500 BC) a massive peoples movement from Eastern Anatolia to
the Aegean region is known. Early Helladic, Cycladic and Minoan cultures can
be results of this movements. The Thyrrhenian attestation of them does not
look improbable. BUT in this case we should expect a relatively high degree
of similarity between Etruscan and Kartvelian (the only Nostratic language
in the Caucasus are then). Is there any evidence of this?
Alexander