From: Gerry Reinhart-Waller
Message: 2185
Date: 2000-04-24
>I guess I must be too impatient. Good luck linking Burushaski with the
> I have seen some evidence (Glen has also reported on it) that links
> Burushaski with the Yenesei (Ket) language of Siberia. Glen places
> it
> as a sub-family within Dene Caucasian. If he is correct in placing
> Niger Kordofanian in the Dene Caucasian macrophylum along with the
> other languages that are usually placed there (Sino-Tibetan,
> Cacasian,
> Basque, Na-Dene etc) then Dene Caucasian is a language family that
> started splitting at least 40,000 years ago (and you saw how little
> of
> common vocabulary survives that length of time (from my
> Glottochronology post). If Ket-Burushaski holds up, and if there is
> a
> Dene-Caucasian link, then Burushaski and the Na-Dene languages you
> mention (Hopi, Athabaskan-Mattole) should have a very distant
> (possibly 8,000 year old connection, as that is the date that
> archaeology/genetics gives for the arrival of the Na Denepeoples in
> North America). That is a better chance for language survivals. The
> split from Burushaski-Ket could have then been about 10-12,000 years
> ago, and may be associated with the post Ice-Age Holocene warming.
>
> Interesting work, although I don't know how it connects to IE
> studies.
> Personally I feel that the split between Burushaski and Ket-Yenesei
> was due to pressure from the west by Nostratic paleo-Altaics with a
> mesolithic culture (Dene-Caucasians were probably specialist Upper
> Paleolithic hunter-gatherers). This ties in both archaeologically
> and
> genetically.
>
> Hope this helps
>
> Regards
>
> John