Re: [tied] How should Nostratic be viewed?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Michael J Smith <lookwhoscross-
eyednow@...> wrote:

> Hi Gerry, you wrote:
>
> > Based on the lectures by Valery P. Alexeev, I have constructed

the

> > following Nostratic Mega Family:
> >
> > -- Indo-European, Semitic, Kartvelian, Dravidian, Uralo-Altaic
> > (including Athapaskan), Yukaghirian, Euroasiatic, Austronesian

and

> > Paleoasiatic/Eskaleut.
>
> Gerry, isn't Austronesian part of the Austro-Asiatic (wasn't this
> formerly known as Indo-Pacific?) macro-family, and thus a separate
> macro-family? Or are you proposing that Nostratic and Austro-

Asiatic

> could have once been in one large macro-family?

Hi Michael,

If I recall correctly, Indo-Pacific was not a former name for Austro-
Asiatic. Rather it is the macrofamily proposed by Merritt Ruhlen to
include a large number of Papuan (New Guinea) and Melanesian language
families plus Tasmanian and Andamanese.

Ned Smith