Re: [tied] searching for common words for all today's languages

----- Original Message -----

From: ytielts

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 11:18 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] searching for common words for all today's languages

 

<snip>

Thanks for your reply, Brian. It is generally agreed by most
mainstream anthropologists that homo sapiens sapiens originates in
Africa. That means that all their descendants should have used a
common language somewhere in Africa. There should be a genetic link
between  all the present-day languages. Don't you agree?

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Patrick:

 

Trask was a brilliant man but even the most brilliant have blind spots.

 

Trask willingly conceded the _possibility_ that all language descended from one common ancestor.

 

At the same time, he fervently _believed_ that any information regarding that most ancient ancestor was not retrievable; and, I fault him for this, was unwilling to seriously look at anything which purported to prove otherwise. What a shame! A mind which could unscramble Basque could have helped so much decipher connections among some of the greatly worn down languages like Sino-Tibetan and others.

 

Greenberg and Ruhlen have gotten a really unfair treatment. They were not trying to systematically "prove" anything but merely show a pervasive set of _suggestive_ relationships which indicated further organized investigation was warranted.

In the case of Greenberg, his suggestions have been the basis for further productive study.

 

***