gErRy wrOtE:
>John, In attempting a gLeNic construction for the Nostratic language
>family, you set up a very interesting schema. But I have (2) >questions:
>why are you seperating Sumerian from Elamite + Dravidian >and why are you
>giving PIE equal status with the extinct Etruscan >language found only in
>an area around Rome?
Not sure about John, but in my view, PIE and Etruscan are very closely
related. Etruscan appears to be different enough from PIE to be seperate but
still sharing close ties with the most archaic IE branch, Anatolian. Due to
the striking similarities, many scholars have once been confused (and
perhaps still are) in thinking that Etruscan was in fact an IE language.
This is true only if you extend the IE language back a thousand years or
more (4500+ BCE).
My view is that EtruscoLemnian (a branch from which Etruscan and a very
close sister language, Lemnian, sprang from) was one of a series of
linguistic and physical migrations from the Pontic-Caspian towards the
Balkans, starting from 4500 BCE (Kurgan I). Lemnian is known to have close
ties to Etruscan and so, Gerry, you are incorrect in thinking that this was
only a Rome affair.
The next waves to spring forth after the EtruscoLemnian wave were the
Anatolian waves. I say "waves" (with an -s) because I theorize that
Lyco-Lydian might have been the first of these waves eventually followed by
the last wave Hittite-Luwian. In such a case, the term "Anatolian" is
somewhat of a loosely defined word, only meaning "the oldest of the old"
under IE studies.
- gLeN
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