It was inevitable. On the CONLANG list, I posted what I felt could be a
Proto-World (or Proto-Language, Proto-Human etc.) phonology. I made no
claims of even the possibility of reconstructing words and grammar; I just
thought of what such a language would sound like. This was promoted as an
idea for a fictitious language that the first humans might've spoken.
I based that "proto-phonology" on the three versions of Nostratic and
Proto-North Caucasian as reconstructed by Sergei Starostin. I also
remembered some of the phonology of Sino-Tibetan and various Native American
languages. I won't post the results unless somebody wants me to, but I did
come up with a glottalic-voiceless-voiced distinction, articulation in many
places (labial, dental, sibilant, palatized sibilant, palatal, lateral,
velar, uvular, pharyngeal, glottal) and some seven to ten vowels with no
length distinction.
A discussion of Nostratic ensued, with most of the list taking a skeptical
stand. I myself am pro-Nostratic, but with my doubts, since the three
reconstructions (Ilich-Svitych, Bomhard and Dolgopolsky) do not always
agree. Someone also brought up Gamqrelidze and Ivanov; I think it was
because of my posting of the Glottalic Theory, or was it the Laryngeal
Theory? Anyway, someone said that these two proposed a common IE-Northwest
Caucasian (that is, Abkhaz, Kabardian, Ubykh, Adyghe). Or at least NWC
influenced Caucasian-zone IE (and obviously Kartvelian) phonologically.
Since in nature matter breaks down towards chaos and not the other way, I
would imagine it would be the same for languages. Languages seem to become
phonemically simpler (yet allophonically more complex) as time goes by.
So here are my questions:
1) Concerning Gamqrelidze & Ivanov. What are the distinctive ideas
concerning IE proposed by this pair? How do other current linguists view
these concepts?
2) When I was on the Nostratic list some years back, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
started translating Ilich-Svitych's list (and Rick McAllister posted the
results on his webpage), but Miguel stopped at 25, leaving most of the work
unfinished. How may I obtain the list -- not the book but just the
Nostratic roots with only the Proto-IE, Proto-AA, Proto-Uralic etc.
reconstructions (not the details of how the Proto-IE word became Sanskrit,
Latin, Greek etc.) I have Dolgopolsky's book which lists 125 Nost roots
with the intent of determining the location and culture of the people who
might've spoken this language.
I just want the I-S roots (and Bomhard too), so as to compare them to
Dolgopolsky, so I can make a more informed decision whether to promote or
debunk Nostratic theory. I also am working on a conlang project; a
fictitious formerly nomadic people from East Africa who settled in the West
Indies speak a Nostratic language (or at least something like Afro-Asiatic
but with Indo-European and Kartvelian elements). And I'd like to write a
book on "general linguistics for dummies".
3) I have seen several versions of Proto-Indo-European case reconstructions.
What is the most accepted case endings (it's still eight cases, right),
given with singular-dual-plurals and possibly consonant, o, a: ("feminine"),
other vowel stems? I know the roots, but what has been reconstructed in the
way of grammar?
4) What are true cognates (or loans) between IE and other language families.
On a Greenberg-like comparison basis, I found words in Semitic with
similar isoglosses in Germanic. Of course this means little since you have
to get down to regular sound correspondences. Also, there's that English
word "dog", and I know of no IE cognates; most of the words for "dog" I've
seen are from *k^won (that is, the "hound-Canis" words).
And ideas on the laryngeals and what they might've sounded like would help.
I've looked through the Cybalist archives, but with hundreds of messages
it'll take me a while to get all caught up...
Dia is Muire daoibh,
Danny ����
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
http://www.hotmail.com