Dear Jarek ;-)
I haven't read the text you present on your web site thoroughly, but do you really want to say that English "home" and Danish "hjem" are related to Polish "jama"? (IMHO, they weren't)
Best,
P.
----- Original Message ----
From: Jaroslaw Jozefowicz <
jaroslawowicz@...>
To:
cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, 28 August, 2006 3:57:47 AM
Subject: [tied] Hi everyone
Greetings list!
My name is Jaroslaw Jozefowicz.
I wanted to join the discussions over a year ago, but after
reading "The Rules" and browsing through postings I got the
impression that this excellent mailing list was devoted to cultivate
only one vision of Indo-European development - a vision which I do
not share. :- (
In case my first impression was right: Do you welcome non-believers ?
Anyway, I do share your passion for the history of Indo-European
languages, so I could not resist the temptation to say hello and
write a few lines. Especially, because I have just finished a little
work on the subject, and because I can see you are struggling with
some of the questions that caused me headaches.
First of all I would like to point out that the bottom of Indo-
European vocabulary is non-visual. In contrast to later derivations
and compounds, the meanings of the oldest words do not reflect visual
stimuli, and do not communicate any visual concepts, which strongly
suggests that the initial vocabulary was developed in a lightless
environment, or was created by someone who was unable to perceive the
surroundings the way we do - someone blind.
Either way, the language was obviously developed to compensate for
the impossibility of visual communication.
Another observation I would like to share is that the IE-vocabulary
forms a continuum deriving from simple vocalizations. Though the
quality of preservation of the phonosemantic structure
varies from one language to another, the IE-languages contain all
phases of their development, and the initial patterns of derivations
are the same, starting with basic ideophones created by vocalizing
sequences of ingestive moovements, by vocalizing respiratory actions
and by mimicking noises.
And a last remark: In my opinion the early levels of vocabulary
reflect an almost animal-like lifestyle, very much unlike the world
of the first pastoralists and farmers that is usually discussed in
connection with the first Indo-Europeans.
Being aware of how much my observations differ from the mainstream
views on our languages, I cannot seriously expect you to share my
vision (at least not right away:-), but If you are interested to read
my view on the initial stages of Indo-European language formation, it
is here:
http://www.electricmood.com/wordeaters.htm
I guess, I should warn you that the work deals mainly with
phonosemantics, and that linguistics is not my field.
Of course, questions, comments and criticism, are most welcome.
Best regards.
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