Re: [tied] Glen- etymological qs.

From: Glen Gordon
Message: 29285
Date: 2004-01-09

Joao:
> Glen, so do you think Joao's proposal is a False Etymological
>Method?

Well Joao is noting similarities between the words of two seperate
languages. He only asked a question so I suppose he's technically
not violated proper methodology, has he? ,:)

However, unsystematic comparisons of two languages so far
apart geographically in order to prove they were somehow in
contact with each other would be bad methodology. It's all about
OcRa, y'know? There are few words available to make a case
for direct Sumerian-IE interaction. One, two or three lookalike
words don't really cut it because we have nothing to test against
the idea. If gu>*gWou- and *girgir>*kWekWlo-, then how do
we know when two words AREN'T loans? Without that sort of
criteria, we can go nutty and compare any phoneme to any
phoneme to make any interaction "plausible".


= gLeN

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