Re: Reaching Down (was: Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Norther

> > I don't understand : the reconstruction by necessity will be based
> > on derived, not primary data.
>
> And that is why you reach down, as Brian calls it, and are not aware
> of the pitfalls of that method. Watch me in Arnaud mode:
> [arnaud]
> Fr. téléphone, Grm. Telephon, Da. telefon, Est. telefon. I
> reconstruct Nostratic *telepon which was spoken 80,000 years ago.
> [/arnaud]
> Do you see the problem?

I have noticed that cell phones (I assume this is what the word stands
for) tend to become lighter with time, eg. a cell phone might weigh
100 grams today which weighed 1 kg 10 years ago. Using the
glottochronological method I am now in a position to compute the
weight of a Nostratic cellphone namely 0,1 kg * 10^8000, or 10^7999
kg, or 10^7997 tons. Unfortunately something seems to be wrong with my
calculator, because it refuses to compute this number; I hope some
other member of cybalist will have better luck.


Torsten