Joao with a million questions:
>Could the Pre-IE "Pelasgians" be Dene-Caucasian people?
The Pelasgians could conceivably be almost anything from what I'm aware of
(except Greek, at least... we assume). There is always the ugly possibility
and likeliest that they are a group of non-Hellenic people or peoples who
spoke various languages, not just one.
Of the languages that were most popular amongst them, my guess would be any
of the following (which are _not_ listed in order of probability or
popularity):
- IE dialects
(Anatolian, for instance)
- Tyrrhenian dialects
(Etruscan, Rhaetic, Lemnian)
- VascoCaucasic dialects
(pre-IndoTyrrhenian languages)
- Semitoid dialects
(either Semitic or... Semitish?)
These language groups are all represented on my Black Sea linguistic map (c
6000 BCE) on my site, if interested. Ultimately, I see the IE & Tyrrhenians
coming from the east off the steppe, Semitish from West Anatolia into the
Balkans and VascoCaucasic dialects slowly spreading from Europe towards the
Balkans eastwards. But this is just one lonely thought among many.
>Is there some reconstruction for Dene-Caucasian numerals?
I personally haven't come across any DeneCaucasian material yet, aside from
Starostin's site (
http://starling.rinet.ru/) which only goes into detail
about his "North Caucasian" which is, I suppose, close enough as being
"DeneCaucasian". At any rate, I'm not the only one to notice numerical
similarities across the DeneCaucasian spectrum judging by other internet
postings. I personally reconstruct the numerals as follows:
1 *xi-ca
2 *xi-k?u, *mN
3 *xi-sul(mu)
4 *li(mu)
5 *piNu
6 *rutL (*tL is a single phoneme)
7 *sul-rit
8 *mN-rit (*M and *N are nasal vowels)
9 *xilxul (?)
10 *xMsi (*c? = /ts/ + glottal stop)
They relate to the Nostratic numbers and ultimately to the Steppe numbers
that I have reconstructed to the ire of Piotr :)
>Any D-C word meaning "god"?
Still looking.
- gLeN
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