--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, dharminder chuhan <pinda1975@...>
wrote:
> I recently came across a book claiming a link between
> the bantu languages and sumerian. I was under the
> impression that sumerian had no known related
> languages. This book however was written in the
> 1930's. Could someone throw any light on this subject
> matter????
Sumerian and Bantu show no similarity at all. There's nothing in
their lexicon and grammar supporting a similar point of view.
Sumerian is an isolate. I worked trying to find it a relative, and I
have in mind North East Caucasian, but what I found is not dicisive
neither impressive. We must remember that Sumerian is build up with
monosyllabical items, and then a special care is need in analysing
every word. Nobody can chop a Sumerian compound word without a rule
in order to find some match with some other lexeme in another
language. It is a crackpot matter. I make some concrete example.
In Italy some pseudo-Celtists think Celtic is related with Sumerian.
They take Sumerian lugal "king", and compare it with Celtic Lugus.
But lugal is lu-gal, where lu is "man" and gal is "great". Celtic
Lugus means "Blond", "Hero", "Lynx" or "Raven" (for the first three
meaning compare Old Irish). The central meaning is "bright", of IE
origin. Simply the matchup is inconsistent, and I can quote a plenty
of similar occurrences.
Best wishes
Marco
> =====
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Exclusive Video Premiere - Britney Spears
> http://launch.yahoo.com/promos/britneyspears/