From: Cl. Sl. Davianus
Message: 12445
Date: 2002-02-23
>>Frankly though, I have to admit that attributing the lack ofvoicing seen in Etruscan or Basque to some underlying lost language
I am not saying that Basque, Etruscan or Iberian lack voincing because of a previous substratum. I am saying that all these languages have these caracteristic and that this caracteristic maybe an areal characteristic.
For example, in Mesoamerica we foung at least 4 unrelated families with
similar phonological characteristics, namely (a) inexistence of b,
d, g; (b) tendence to lack fritative and inexistence of voiced fricatives.
(c) Existence of labiovelar [kW] (d) tendence to have contrast of glottalized
non-glotalized stops ... and other grammatical characteristics (at least
9 additional characteristics)
The probability that two families have these characteristics or tendences
in common is not high and so nobody doubts that many of these characteristics
are areal characteristics.
My question is if it reasonable that some of the common characteristics of Mediterranea pre-Indoeropean Languages to be areal characteristics.
David Sánchez