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

From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 60645
Date: 2008-10-07

----- Original Message -----
From: "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>

> 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?

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I don't know who is the first idiot who wrote that,
but this is clearly something I would never do.

To start with, -l- in IE can _never_ correspond with -l- in Uralic,
in my own system,
so Est(-onian I suppose) clearly shows this word cannot be inherited
something everybody already knows.
And I have never hidden the fact I don't trust Nostratic
and I have never given such a datation for it.

Next, I think originally there were only four vowels a i o u
and I would never reconstruct something with e.

Arnaud

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