Re: House and City

--- In cybalist@..., "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...> wrote:

>
> Torsten, being unnecessarily stubborn, replies:
> >I might begin with this:
> >You put up a very good temporal argument that the similarities

can't

> >be caused by inheritance. You then replace "inheritance" with
> >"inheritance/borrowing". You have now proved that the similarities
> >can't be caused by borrowing and therefore any similarity must a
> >coincidence, since tertium non datur. Or was it quartum non datur?
>

gLeN:

> Torsten, let me outline this clearer in jot form:
>
> It's very unlikely to be inheritance.
> Why? The relationship is too remote in time.
>
> It's very unlikely to be borrowing.
> Why? The geographical distances are too remote.

Torsten:
Give my old grandmother a decent canoe and she would have put that
distance behind her on a thermos of coffee in a couple of hundred
years.

gLeN:

>
> It's therefore most likely to be coincidence.
>
> This should be very understandable reasoning. Your reasoning

however is

> entirely alien to me.

Torsten:
Well, I *am* an alien.

gLeN:
You appear to use Austric and Austronesian and any

> Asian language starting with "A" as interchangeable. You are

unconcerned

> with timelines. You are unconcerned with explicitly outlining in

detail what

> you claim. Your theory is unfocused and vague. Purposely vague, no

doubt, in

> order to be disruptive and to slither out of your misguided

statements with

> ease, providing for ample circularity in this discussion.
>

Torsten:

> >A Wanderwort is a (several times over) loan word. What you are
> >saying, although you don't seem to realize it, is that I have

proved

> >my theory.
>

gLeN:

> What WAS your theory? Outline please.

Torsten:
That words were borrowed or spread out from Sundaland into Eurasia at
a time later to be defined. But it was only an casual inquiry in the
beginning, and I've been so busy staving off outraged linguists that
I never got around to thinking of time-lines and such.

Torsten:

> >But at least you share with them the conviction of the all-

importance of a

> >long-term diffusion of ideas from the Eastern >Mediterranean area

[...]

> >Don't you think that could form a basis for a dialogue?
>
> Dialogue concerning what exactly? Connections between IE and the
> faraway Austric languages?? You're still confusing me. Such a
> dialogue seems as futile as comparing Mayan to Ket.

Torsten:
Erh, I was suggesting a dialogue between you and your parents. I was
only being helpful:) A-hm.

>

gLeN:

> >>Thanx, Tor, You've helped me make an important career move.
> >
> >A small linguistic note: Danish, like Norwegian and German, but
> >unlike Swedish, English and Dutch, does not form nicknames by
> >dropping the last part of the compound name.
>
> Oh my. The poor dear is so confused that he can't even tell the
> difference between Danish and English, the latter being the current
> language in use where forming nicknames by dropping the last part of
> a name is extremely common.
>
> But at any rate, tack så mycket för danska lektionen, Tor. :)
>
> - gLeN

That would be 'dansklektionen', gLeNe. You don't speak Danishly
either. And you are very welcome:) (Please note that your name is in
the vocative. I have taken the liberty of subjecting it to a Latin
grammatical process)

Torsten