13-08-03 06:37, Philippe Fauni-Tanos wrote:
> I was wondering, what did the first European H. sapiens sapiens speak?
> Well, I would guess they spoke a Sino-Caucasian language -- probably
> related to NW and NE Caucasian, Vinca and Hattic. I call it
> Paleo-European, which includes Iberian, Pictish, Ligurian,
> "Balko-Danubian" etc. But I would guess Sino-Caucasic could have entered
> Europe c.25-20 kya BCE. Then what did the "Cro-Magnons" speak 35kya BCE?
> I can't guess anything but an early form of
> "Amerindo-Nostratic-Caucasic" (when they weren't distinguished from each
> other yet). I don't know really ... what do you think?
Dear Phil,
This list is devoted to discussing Indo-European linguistics and
_related_ problems. As the timeline of reconstructible PIE only extends
back into the Neolithic, questions like "What did the Cro-Magnon people
speak?" are regarded as OT here. Anyway, in my opinion, this particular
question is as unaswerable as "What song did the Sirens sing?". For all
I know, they may have spoken a language that has left no descendants.
You "guess" three times in one short paragraph. I wouldn't like Cybalist
discussions to turn into naive guessing games.
By the way: Vinca is a complex of archaeological cultures, not a
language. How on earth can you know what languages the carriers of that
culture spoke? Pictish, according to current research, was a variety of
Brittonic Celtic. Dumping together all little-known and poorly
documented languages into a single superfamily just because they're
equally mysterious is not an acceptable linguistic method.
Piotr