Tommy wrote:
>IF there is something to the Dene-Caucasian hypothesis I can think >of two
>periods when the establishment of a language family >stretching all the way
>from the Atlantic (Basque) to Northeast Asia (Dene) might be feasible from
>an archaeological point of view.
>
>1) The Aurignacian culture ca 35,000-40,000 BP. 2) The Gravettian culture
>[...] ca 20,000 BP
Why, Tommy, you came just in time! That mean ol' Guillaume was nagging me
for not-overly-important _archaeological_ substantiation for my
_linguistical_ hypothesis.
Hmm, that number two looks tasty enough to eat. I'll have the Gravettian
culture with a plate of fries to go, please. Don't forget the ketchup. From
what you explain and especially the time frame you give, #2 would seem
likely for DeneCaucasian. As for the Aurignacian culture you state:
>Note that whatever language the Aurignacian may have spoken it
>would have been the FIRST fully "modern" language in most of Europe, >since
>it seems likely that the neandertalers were linguistically >more primitive.
Please also note that there is no such thing as a "modern" language as
opposed to a "primitive" one and so the language that the neanderthalers may
have spoke (whether vocal communication, sign language or a mixture of both)
may not, and most likely was not, primitive at all except in a loose
comparison perhaps between the likely vocabulary of the time and that of our
now vastly specialized vocabulary. Neanderthals are people too you know!
(Well, kind of.)
- gLeN
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