Steve:
>But I'm interested. How does "Uralic and Altaic" tell you that
>a "pre-IE" language was not spoken in Anatolia in 7500BC?
We know that Uralic (or Uralic-Yukaghir, for that matter) and
Altaic are languages placed firmly away from Anatolia. They are
positioned to the east of IndoEuropean. We know that Uralic and
Altaic are language groups that are most likely closely related
to IndoEuropean because of sometimes uncanny similarities in
grammatical elements and vocabulary. If we can accept this, we
have a problem placing IndoEuropean in Anatolia without creating
a farflung scenario to account for its past.
In order to get them there, we either need to say that IE,
Uralic and Altaic were _all_ located in Anatolia at one time
(of which there is no trace of linguistic evidence to support
such a hypothesis), or we need to say that IE alone had, for
a brief time moved to Anatolia before going back up north where
it must have been previously! I am satisfied with Bomhard's
view that IE is ultimately from the east. This makes the most
linguistic sense.
So really. Why must we try so hard to have IE in Anatolia? What
is so special about Anatolia that causes us to feverishly attempt
to lay it there? Is it because Anatolia is the cradle of
European agriculture? Why do we continue to feel the need to place
IE in the center of neolithic action. I'm quite content in
accepting that IE had a _peripheral_ involvement in the early
economy of the Middle-East.
This topic reminds me a lot of the olden days when people thought
that the Earth was in the center of the universe. Eventually,
people finally accepted that, lo and behold, the Earth is just one
of many planets, none of which are in the center of the universe.
Likewise, IE is not in the center of the linguistic universe, it
is only a part of a larger network of languages. We don't need to
keep placing IE smack dab in the middle of the action or to make it
the catalyst for major events. Repeat after me: "IndoEuropean isn't
anything special. IndoEuropean is just a plain-jane language like
all others."
- love gLeN
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