Re: [cybalist] Digest Number 32

----- Original Message -----

From: Guillaume JACQUES

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 1:49 AM

Subject: Re: [cybalist] Digest Number 32

Guillaume writes:

I think a high date - 5000 BC at the very least is necessary for proto-semitic, and much more for the hypothetical proto-Afroasiatic.
The same goes for IE. I think proto-IE should also be dated back to 5000-6000 BC on the very least unless we supose the languages evolved xceptionnaly quickly.

 

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Hear, hear! I like your deep date for PIE. It squares beautifully with my favourite idea that the first central/north European farmers were PIE-speakers.

 

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PS : please avoid using 'samoyed'. Each time I read this word I feel annoyed because it is utterly pejorative. It means roughly 'those who eat each other'. I suggest 'Nganassan-nenets' or something like that. It is like calling the Sami 'lapp' , and the Bristish 'rozbif (rosebeef in French)'

 

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Actually, "samoyed" is 'self-eater' (admittedly interpretable as 'cannibal') according to a Slavic folk etymology (a misinterpretation of Enets "Somatu", I believe). Some Polish scholars prefer the term samodyjski (say, "Samodian") instead of samojedzki ("Samoyed/ic"). If English-speakers could be persuaded to use "Samodian", it would be superior to "Nganasan-Nenets" as shorter, more euphonious, and not favouring just two languages of the branch to the exclusion of the rest. Unfortunately, "Samoyed" (whether politically correct or not) is generally used by linguists including eminent Uralicists, and will probably continue to be so used in the decades to come.

 

Piotr