Re: [tied] Ah, look at all the lonely languages

If the answer to my inquiry isn't either "a city of the gods"
or "alien presence" then the concept of "linguistic isolate" when
there still remain speakers of the language, is also wrong headed.
Languages are alive and constantly ebb and flow. Just heard that
there is now a revival of that once dead language called Latin.

Gerry

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
<piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gerry
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2003 10:17 PM
> Subject: Re: [tied] Ah, look at all the lonely languages
>
>
> > Yet Basque isn't a lonely isolated language and fuels the Basque
> separatist movement.
> It _is_ a linguistic isolate, and politics has nothing to do with

that.

>
> > The Basque language is an inflected language whose origin is still
> somewhat puzzling. The fact that it is not an Indoeuropean

language, and

> shows no ressemblance to languages in neighbouring countries, has

led to the

> formulation of a variety of hypotheses to explain its existence.

Owing to

> some similarities with the Georgian language, some linguists think

it could

> be related to languages from the Caucasus.
>
> Those who believe in a Basque/Georgian relationship don't deserve

to be

> called linguists, IMO.
>
> > Others relate the language to non-Arabic languages from the north

of

> Africa.
>
> Meaning Berber? That's as absurd as the Georgian connection.
>
> > One of the most likely hypotheses argues that the Basque language
> developed "in situ", in the land of the primitive Basques.
>
> The ancestors of the Basque-speakers must have lived in Iberia for

a long

> time. No-one questions that.
>
> > That theory is supported by the discovery of some Basque-type

skulls in

> Neolithic sites, which ruled out the thesis of immigration from

other areas.

>
> But Basque is a language, not a skull shape. Nobody really knows

what

> language was spoken in and around the Basque Country during the

Neolithic,

> and the hypothesis that it was some stage of pre-Proto-Basque is

unprovable,

> even if not impossible.
>
> > Many think it is a very old language because there are words,

such as that

> for axe ("aizkora" or "haizkora") for example, that have the same

root as

> the word rock ("aitz" or "haitz").
>
> The fact that OE seax 'knife, short sword' (the favourite weapon of

the

> Seaxe or Saxons) is possibly related to Lat. saxum 'rock' doesn't

mean that

> the Saxons have lived in England since the stone age.
>
> >>> IOW, could Sumer perhaps have been a "city of the gods" (or

even of the

> untouchables)?
>
> >> I don't think I understand this question.
>
> > I'm simply trying to pull out of the atmosphere some reasons why a
> language becomes (or remains) an isolate. Guess another answer

could be

> "aliens from outer space".
>
> If you mean that linguistic isolates may have been planted on earth

by gods

> from space, it doesn't seem to be a good topic for this group.

There must be

> e-groups devoted to alien abductions, Lost Civilisations and cranky
> para-religious movements out there.
>
> Piotr