Re: [tied] A few questions and gift for You!

In a message dated 21/08/01 23:01:15 GMT Daylight Time,
milos@... writes:

>Is today still considered that Rhaetanic language originated
>from non-Indoeuropean natives of the alpine race, that used
>to live and still live in the teritorry of that language?

There are basically three theories about Raetic. Either it
represents the descendant of a Tyrrhenian language which
arrived in the area by a separate route from Etruscan, or
it represents a later intrusion into the area from the
south, or it is a relic of a previously common Tyrrhenian
linguistic area.

BTW, use of the term "alpine race" is now considered to be
rather old-fashioned. There is no reason to believe that
there was any less genetic variation of surface
characteristics such as shape of head, colour of hair/skin
etc., in the past than there is now. The use of these
surface characteristics, which account for only a tiny
proportion of genetic differences, as a basis for systems
of categorisation, is therefore not valid.

>Gift for the members of this list is map (HLA_A1.jpg) of the
>distribution of the blood type HLA-A1 that follows
>Indoeuropean group of language (IElanguage.jpg). It is a proof
>that Indoeuropean group of languages is followed by the real
>population of Indoeuropean peoples that have their origin from
>one family in which that blood type was formed first. On the
>north of Africa we see the descendants of the Vandals that
>today speak non-Indoeuropean language.

I'm afraid the same applies to blood types, which are only
a small part of a very complicated picture. We have to take
into account the variation in all genes, which all make
rather different maps. Then trying to tie up these different
maps with real events and chronologies is enormously
difficult and provides no one proven answer. The problem is
also complicated by the fact that genetic differences occur
both because of random change and because of adaptation to
local conditions.

Trying to tie up language change with population movement
is doubly difficult, because of course it could be either
the language of the immigrants which largely prevails, or
the language of the previously indigenous peoples.

Ed. Robertson