gpiot-@... wrote:
original article:
http://www.egroups.com/group/cybalist/?start=4
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> > I'm very interested in up-to-date view on Nostratic stem *kor'i- (a
> > sheep, a lamb). This stem was given by Illich-Svitych in his
Nostratic
> > Glossary as #173. Do you know other Nostratic stems concerning
> > agricultural terms (a goat, corn, weat, barley, to sow) or something
> > like this?
>
> All I can remember is the following stems which are either Nostratic
or just borrowed by Indo-European from other families (Semitic,
Caucasian, etc.) - the matter is still under discussion:
>
> *ag'r- a field
> *Hat- grain (IE, Hurrian, Hurritic)
> *gu-, *gw- a bull
> *dq- a goat (IE and Cartvelian)
> *sw- swine
> *dhn- grain, a sort of grain (IE and Semitic)
> *tawr- a bull
>
>
> CYRIL BABAEV
I don't know any Nostratic stems at all, or rather, I don't believe the
"Nostraticity" of any single stem has been demonstrated beyond
reasonable doubt. All I can say is that Indo-European languages do not
show traces of anything like *kor'i for ovines. I plead lack of
competence as regards other families. By the way, Aharon Dolgopolsky
has been elaborating on Illich-Svitych's ideas for so long that now he
should be regarded as chief spokesman for the Nostratic cause. The
recently published collection "Nostratic: Examining a Linguistic
Macrofamily" (ed. by C. Renfrew & D. Nettle, Cambridge: McDonald
Institute, 1999) focusses on Dolgopolsky's preliminary collection of
alleged Nostratic etyma. The book contains a lot of sharp, and I'm
afraid completely justified, criticism of the whole enterprise by
eminent specialists, not all of them a priori unsympathetic to
Nostratic ideas.
PIOTR GASIOROWSKI