Alright. I hope I can respond to the (gasp!) 100-something messages I've
actually managed to read!
Piotr:
------
Your denial of IE-Uralic relationships or even IE-Tyrrhenian relationships
is a typically conservative and unfortunately popular view that only serves
to avoid the painful process of logical deduction. Afterall, thought can be
tiresome.
The view is also getting very out-of-date given that the unknowns are slowly
melting away as more and more is known about IE. I assume that you
understand that comparative linguistics is a theoretical science so if
you're expecting 100% absolutes to any given theory, you'll be waiting
forever for the truth to hit you on the head. Therefore, let's deduce the
likeliest theory rather than giving in to apathy.
Now, let's see...
We could say that IE was _always_ where it was: Huh?? Come on,
time for a reality pill. Next!
We could say that the IE are from Europe: Completely unfounded
linguistically. Laughable.
We could say that IE came from Anatolia: definitely unfounded
linguistically. Another laugh.
We could say that IE came from the steppes: supported by some
deeply engrained similarities in pronominal systems, grammar
and, if I have my way, numerical systems, between IE and
Uralic/Altaic. These similarities have been continuously
outlined by Nostraticists for a century and cannot be ruled
out as coincidences or even "convergeance", given the volume
of evidence that is so easy to deny if you're lazy.
Hmm, which one to choose? So difficult to decide, really. And what with
mythology making IE's substrate clear and pointing the language's origins to
the steppes. And the eery similarities between IE and NWC
phonology/vocabulary that almost seem to hint at an early interaction before
7000 BCE. And the fact that NWC itself seems to closely correlate with
_more_ eastern language groups like SinoTibetan and NaDene as if NWC and
IndoTyrrhenian moved in the same direction (west to the North
Pontic-Caspian). Boy! It REALLY is hard to decide, isn't it? Come on, Piotr,
work with me.
John:
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I really wish you could paraphrase me with a little bit more accuracy than
this. I never ever said that IndoTyrrhenians came in by "invasion". I have
never uttered the term "invasion" and never would. People who have done
their homework refrain from such primitive terminology. I can't imagine
where you got this from. At most, a calm slow migration of people would have
occured, yes. Invasion? Erh, no.
Certainly, trade and warming climate must have helped spread the
IndoTyrrhenian language westward. Regardless of what archaeology you can
throw at me, it's absurd to think that Central Asia in no way affected the
west from 9000 BCE onward.
I am very willing to accept a Proto-Steppe language that lied ahead of the
mesolithic advance. Afterall, barnyard words like "sheep" (*hu) or "cow"
(*k:u) are somewhat iffy to reconstruct with certainty in ProtoSteppe. I
will certainly never accept a nonsensical _Anatolia_-derived IndoTyrrhenian.
I wish that, in your linguistical ignorance, you could respect the common
consensus among linguists that IE couldn't possibly come from Anatolia in
any way, shape or form. Your archaeological points against this view mean
absolutely _squat_ with a capital "S" in linguistics. Read a dictionary.
I also wish you could take heart that archaeology and language are different
creatures and when speaking of linguistics, you better damn well know what
you're talking about on a linguistic standpoint if you wish to be taken
seriously.
PS: Don't worry. My requested views on the relationship of IE to AA,
amidst Semitish substrate influence, will be coming up in the third
message...
PPS: And anyone curious about what I mean by correlations between
the numerical systems of IE versus Uralic & Altaic
can visit my outline of Steppe grammar which now includes,
at the bottom, a listing of reconstructed terms from one to ten
(and twenty):
http://glen-gordon.tripod.com/LANGUAGE/steppe_sketch.html
Comments or death threats are greatly appreciated.
- gLeN
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