Re: Can relationships between languages be determined after 80,000 y

On 2008-02-02 19:18, Rick McCallister wrote:

> Wikipedia "Australian languages (vel sim)" mentioned Dixon but stated
> that no one else supports his view.

His rejection of Pama-Nyungan is certainly a minority view, but so is
other extreme, the lumping together of all the indigenous languages of
Australia. Then, Dixon is certainly no crank, and his knowledge of the
languages in question comes from decades of field research, not from
dictionaries and word-lists.

> My suspicion is that Pama-Nyungan probably spread with the
> introduction of new technology around 4-6,000 years ago and its
> ancestor may an Australian language whose speakers picked up new
> technology through trade or oursiders whose language spread. Someone
> with more knowledge than me will have to answer that. OTOH, I see the
> attraction of Dixon's idea --Australia is flat and its ethnic groups
> were nomadic and relatively fluid. So the situation may be similar to
> that of Altaic, where a sprachbund is so strong that it may
> obliterate traces of genetic relationships

Dixon's volte-face could be compared to Alexander Vovin's "defection"
from the Altaic camp, except that among Australianists a difference of
opinions doesn't look like a deadly personal feud.

Piotr