RE : [tied] Re: North of the Somme

From: bmscotttg
Message: 64756
Date: 2009-08-15

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "caotope" <johnvertical@> wrote:

[...]

>> Khanty is spoken a few thousands of kilometers away from the
>> Germanic hartlands. I don't buy the idea that pre-IE/Uralic
>> northern Europe/Siberia spoke only one language.

> Because?

Because languages change over time, and vast distances imply
considerable temporal differentiation.

[...]

> But the languages around them swarm with lookalikes which must be
> ultimately related, [...]

An article of faith, apparently.

>> *kansa "people": Outside of Fennoscandia, the only posited
>> cognates are Udmurt kuz, Komi goz, which do not correspond
>> even to _one another_ (viz. the initial stop voicing; otherwise
>> possible from *kansa). Also, they mean "pair". Germanic > Samic
>> contacts are kno'n to exist so that doesn't pose a problem.

> Please explain how Germanic-Lapp contacts solve the problem.

By making <kansa> a loan from (pre-Grimm) Gmc., I presume.

[...]

Brian