Continuum theory [Kartvelian?]-PIE-Uralic -Yukaghir-Paleosiberian-
From: C. Darwin Goranson
Message: 43228
Date: 2006-02-03
First, let me suggest my current idea. The Proto-Indo-Europeans
arose from two linguistic groups' interaction, one of which had much
Kartvelian influence, the other of which was closer to the pair's
original style, a relative of Finno-Ugric. Finno-Ugric, in turn, is
linked to Samoyed to form the Uralic linguistic continuum. Then
comes Yukaghir, with noteworthy similarities to Uralic (I've only
read a little, but I've noticed some interesting words that connect
to Uralic, and some, perhaps, perhaps, to an incursion of ancient
Indo-Iranians or Tocharians in the form of the Afanasievans). Then,
likely, some of the Paleosiberian languages have connections to
Yukaghir, and from Siberia there exist the officially noted
connections to Esquimo-Aleut.
Now. The continuum idea is already a strong sontender for the nature
of Proto-Uralic, and has models in the nature of the Sami/Lappish
languages, and, more in the vein of this group, the German-Dutch
languages. Considering the striking pronoun similarities between
Proto-Finno-Ugric and PIE, such as PFU 1st person singular *minä and
PIE genitive 1st person singular *méne or *h1mene, PFU 2nd Person
singular *sinä and PIE genitive 2nd person singular *tewe, and more
distantly, perhaps, 3rd person *hän and one of the *kwi- or *io-
roots (My reconstructed PFU may be inaccurate, but it's close -
Finnish being seen to be a conservative language in the extreme),
plus the words for "ice": *jängi (with an "eng" for the "ng") and
*yeg- *there are clear similarities at a deep, deep level. The fact
that the numbers differ is one of the only main problems. This, I
believe can actually be remedied, though. When going back so far
into the past, the words that were first set to mean certain numbers
are usually based on certain concepts, and thus differences can
arise in the interpretation around the number's symbolism.
Alternately (and considering the similarities of PIE 8 to some
Caucasian 4s, as well as the word for 7), the PIE number system may
come from the group that was more heavily influenced by Caucasian,
or perhaps an actual Caucasian stratum that added some consonant-
rich stems to the language or such.
Does this seem reasonable? Are there other examples of comparison
I've missed?