Re: Mother of all IE languages

From: Jim Rader
Message: 27924
Date: 2003-12-03

>
> This makes parole as a driver of 'historical change', a good
> methodological tool for evaluating IE--IA contacts -- back and
> forth -- and the many Prakrits using both the lexical items and
> the 'written' hieroglyphs. The main difference between Egyptian
> Hieroglyphs and Sarasvati Hieroglyphs is that the former are
> representations of syllables while the latter are representations
> (rebus) of words -- examples of what Miguel calls 'parole instances'
> (both written and spoken). I think I have mentioned the example of the
> glyph: kuduru 'lizard' rebus: portable gold furnace; a glyph which is
> common to Gundestrup cauldron and also Sarasvati epigraphs.
>

Mr. Kalyanaraman's terminological galaxy seems to be part of some
alternate universe. Is "IE-IA contacts" supposed to mean "Indo-
European - Indo-Aryan contacts"? Is Indo-Aryan not part of Indo-
European in this universe? Are "the Prakrits" everything but Sanskrit,
including non-Indo-European speech forms? Doesn't this make the
term "Prakrit" meaningless? Since when are Egyptian hieroglyphs
syllabic? By the time I get to the portable gold furnace and the
Gundestrup cauldron I've slipped over the event horizon....

Jim Rader