[tied] Re: Eggs from birds and swift horses

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <petegray@...> wrote:

> >>analogy from a form that
> > > is not attested, which includes the reconstruction of a
> >> grammatical marker
> > > not found anywhere in the language!
> >
> >By excluding
> > influence from the augment you are in essence saying that you do

not

> > believe Latin is an Indo-European language.
>
> You are not seriously suggesting that all Indo-European languages

had the

> augment!

I am indeed. I admit I can't prove it though. Still, I wouldn't know
where its traces could come from if the language that split into the
first diversified IE languages did not have it - and then all
branches had it.

>
> Perhaps you meant "excluding the possibility that Latin had the

augment".

> If that's what you mean, I would have to look at the evidence -

and the

> evidence is that Latin shows no sign of the augment whatsoever.

It also is

> on other grounds not part of the Sprachbund that does have the

augment. If

> anything, there are more isoglosses separating Latin from that

sprachbund

> than anywhere else in the IE spectrum.

I think that Sprachbund is a mirage. What else has it going for it
except the augment? And if it is only the augment it does not say
much. The ruins of such a great system as a language is are bound to
pattern in all conceivable ways just by chance, including forming a
small package in an exceptional case. Nothing can be based on that.
But it could also be an areal group of languages supporting each
other in the retention of the augment. Still, they did not support
each other much in other things.

> I am happy to conclude that Latin did not have the augment.

I don't care one way or the other, I just want to know. You are not
helping me much.

Jens