From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 60125
Date: 2008-09-18
----- Original Message -----
From: "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
>> =========
>> Answer :
>> The concept of Indo-European proto-language is a modernized version
>> of the Japhetic and Scythic hypotheses that go back to the XVI and
>> XVII century.
>> The racialization of this linguistic concept was done by the
>> Germans in the second half of the XIX century.
>
> Gobineau was German? Live and learn.
>
============
As far as I know,
French people have not invented the 1000ige Reich.
and all subsequent ideas about Aryans.
As a matter of fact, PIE is rather a confidential item in the French
cultural landscape.
There is no equivalent of Bartleby IE roots of English.
Arnaud
============
>
>> The statement that the British invented PIE as a by-product of
>> colonialism is just absurd.
>
> The real reason can be found in
> http://lib.ru/DPEOPLE/PARKINSON/parkinson.txt_Ascii.txt
> C. Northcote Parkinson:
>
> It is obvious and clear that those of the candidates who were sent out
> to rule India without any talent beyond that of writing Greek and
> Latin verse, plenty of time on their hands and no entertainment other
> than afternoon tea would go all gaga when confronted with a language
> so similar to those otherwise useless ones they had mastered at great
> investment in time and patience, cf. the famous words of Sir William
> Jones in Calcutta.
>
> > Torsten
>
===========
I don't get your point, Dear Torsten.
The scythic / japhetic idea is as old as the XVIth century
and Bopp studied four years in Paris before publishing his famous work.
The role of the British is the development of IE comparatism is rather
small.
Apart from making Indian data more easily available.
Jones was incompetent but he was lucky enough to speak English,
the new universal language of present times.
Let's remind that Jones claimed that Hindi was not related to Sanscrit !!
Arnaud