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

There seems to be a lot of either/or, black/white
polarizing opinions in linguistics, and too many
people playing "gotcha". It's good to know that Dixon
isn't hated for having a different opinion
In the case of Altaic, it's obvious a sprachbund BUT
it may also be a valid genetic unit. Balkans languages
form a sprachbund but are also related (unless you're
including Turkish).
Spanish and Portuguese are closely related but they
also seem to form a kind of sprachbund, given that
they seem closer today than in Medieval times


--- Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> 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
>
>

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