Piotr:
> Call *this* an argument? Laughable. Besides, Glen, as regards >IE/Uralic
>and IE/Tyrrhenian relationships, I concede that they are >more likely than
>any alternative groupings. I don't find the evidence >sufficient to accept
>them wholeheartedly, that's all.
They remain the likeliest relationships thus far. That's all we need concern
ourselves with. Believing that they are unrelated would work against Occam's
Razor, would it not?
Piotr:
>There's quite a lot evidence in favour of these connections, but all >of it
>rather weak.
Unfortunately, true. The evidence so far IS weak. This is because the ones
that are competent enough to provide solid evidence have thrown the
Nostratic Hypothesis out the window because it is too taboo and "weak" for
their liking, rather than actually honestly examining the connections and
putting aside irrelevant failures in the past by lunatic amateurs. We all
know how political linguistics can be.
Of course, the few that refuse to conform to politics tend to be oddballs
anyways - so imaginative that they end up sabotaging their goal. It's a
revolving door.
>Circumstantial evidence can easily be misused,
True, but the term "circumstantial" can equally be misused. Uralic, Altaic
and IndoEuropean obviously share many grammatical similarities that can
hardly be deemed "circumstantial" lest we throw away the very basis for the
reconstruction of Proto-IndoEuropean. Take away IndoEuropean grammatical
comparison and what are we left with? Nothing, just a list of individual
reconstructions, as is sadly often done in Nostratic.
Nonetheless, the grammatical relationship IS there if we care to look and
put two and two together. I've already made some connections such as the
common use of interrogative stems *mi- and *kWi- (cf Uralic *mi- "who?",
*ku- "what?"), which in themselves, along with demonstrative stems, show an
early animate/inanimate gender contrast as we find in IE, the
subjective/objective conjugation, etc. I've already outlined a common Steppe
grammar to begin understanding where I'm coming from.
Still, I maintain that the lack of success regarding the Nostratic
Hypothesis stems mainly from apathy and politics more than anything. I hate
to see this go on.
>You won't convert sceptics by pleading, less likely still by insulting
> >them. You once asked me to tell you straight out what kind of evidence
> >I'd regard as fully convincing. I satisfied your curiosity on that
> >occasion and see no reason to repeat myself.
Yes, you did. It's coming in parts, don't worry. I've so far outlined Steppe
and Nostratic grammar and put up a phonological system for IndoTyrrhenian.
Anything you want me to focus on right now? I'll take your order now.
- gLeN
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