Re: [tied] Re: Genetic Studies and Aryan Migrations

Again, sloppy logic, MKelkar (although I accept it is Garett's idea)

> "On the one hand because Mycenaen Greek
>shows innovations that are found only in some Greek dialects, it
>cannot be viewed as proto Greek; it is just an early dialect. On the
>other hand many innovations are found in every Greek dialect EXCEPT
>Mycenaean (Garett 1999, p. 3, emphasis in the original).
>
>These facts make the construction of a "proto-Greek" language
>logically impossible.

(a) Some forms are indeed absent from what we know of Mycenaean. But this
may reflect our poor knowledge. Mycenaean is still not yet fully known.
(b) Mycenaean contains within itself dialects; it is not a single coherent
dialect.
(c) Mycenaean is a thousand years earlier than some of the known dialects,
and hundreds of years earlier than all of them. There is time for mutual
influence among dialects. Why does the pattern you describe prevent the
reconstruction of a proto-language?

Peter