Marco:
>I spent almost my entire life in questioning things. Being a
>splitter, not a lumper, I analyse every single item with maniacal
>precision, and you know it.
Yes, I do know it. I'm not blind. And I enjoy the fact that you do :)
>It is you that want to impose your point or view naming everything
>else "ignorance". I began mailing you when I read a sentence in a site of
>yours that hurted me: "ignorance is not an option".
But ignorance *isn't* an option, at least for me. And when you say
exclamatory statements like "It is you that...", it almost appears as
though you're letting your personal feelings do the thinking rather
than your logical reasoning. I didn't mean anything as a slight,
honestly. Perhaps I was being too exclamatory as well, typical of
me I admit, and I apologize.
>You apply Occam razor with an extreme nonchalance, shaving off many
>evidences.
Enough propoganda, more substance. What evidence?
>Why whimsical? Diabole Domine, nefts and naphoth are clearly IE!
>I know of no other language with this root.
Except Tyrrhenian, of course. It is assumed to be IE but there
is nothing particularly IE about the word. This is a different case
from the issue of *septm because while the word is transparently
Semitic by the use of native morphemes used elsewhere, *nepo:ts
is an atomic root containing no distinctive IE morphemes.
We could use the arguement that the nominative /-s/ is represented
in /nefts/ and that it is surely IE, yet it fails to surface in Lemnian.
Furthermore, /-s/ is _optionally_ used in other Etruscan names
and nouns in the _nominative_ and case endings are found
attached to a noun already in /-s/ (eg: /tins-i/ "on the day",
with /-s/ plus the locative /-i/ seen elsewhere). We could say
that /tin/ is IndoEuropean too but it doesn't explain the use
of /-s/ as if it were a native suffix.
Further reason why /nefts/ can't be assumed to be IE outright is
that /mi/ "I" also has an IE equivalent *me, but which is unlikely
to be borrowed from Latin given the un-Latin accusative form
/mini/. The equation *-os = Etruscan /-as/ is another connection
that is unlikely to be the product of mere borrowing.
So that /nefts/ MUST be IndoEuropean ultimately appears to rest on
the assumption that Tyrrhenian languages can't have anything
resembling IE without being borrowed from IE. Yet common and
unborrowed morphemes appear to exist between Tyrrhenian and
IE and many agree that there is probably some genetic relationship
between the two. Caution has to be exercised.
>We have no independent attestation of this language that some
>author calls "Ausonic".
Weak.
>I don't believe in Anatolian origin for IE.[...] I can only notice the
>presence of Semitic loanwords in IE. I don't know where the interaction
>happened, and trying to locate an exact place seems to be idle.
It's not "idle". It's paramount to greater understanding. By accepting
that *septm is Semitic and by disagreeing to an Anatolian origin of IE,
we must accept an intermediary between IE and Semitic, whatever
that language may be. This is an inevitable conclusion that you avoid
by pleading ignorance (eg: "trying to locate an exact place seems to
be idle"). So perhaps I should reiterate much to your ire that "ignorance
isn't an option".
>But I suppose that these Semitic items were Wanderwo"rter in Neolithic
>Europe, that may have reached IE already in the Steppe.
Wrong. IE *sweks and *septm show regular changes showing clearly that the
numerals already existed in the proto-language and that it was borrowed
well within prehistory, before 4000 BCE, likely after 6000 BCE when
influence
from Asia Minor is most likely. Any "wanderword" theory MUST involve the
transmission and spread of the item within _pre-IE_ dialects at any early
date
within a sufficiently _small_ core area. IE could not have been spread out
at
this time, although the larger para-IE community as a whole could have been.
>OK. I will stop this line of attack with this mail.
I'm relieved. Thank you.
>But is almost equally unfair the end of our personal correspondance.
I was busy with many other things. No offense to you. I'm stressed and
have a crazy, physical life outside of the Forum, you know.
>Many important questions are still opened.
Yes. I try to keep up because I enjoy these debates but I'm not a robot
and sometimes the emails overwhelm me.
= gLeN
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