Re: *y-n,W- "subordinate"?

On 2008-11-20 20:25, Arnaud Fournet wrote:

> Torsten, you are just wrong,
> but this does not matter that much,

No, Torsten isn't wrong. I was seriously considering the possibility of
a loan. The other two possibilities are (1) long-range cognacy, (2)
chance similarity. Given the similar roles and similar cultural
importance of the IE and Semitic words, I wouldn't exclude an ancient
wanderwort. Very ancient, given the archaic properties of *h2oju within
IE (even though it lacks unquestionable attestation in Anatolian).

> What strikes me in the message 36633 is the neutrality toward Nostratic and
> LR inheritance.
> It seems M. Gasiorowski is now "shying away" from that kind of hypotheses.
> The tendency has shifted from neutrality toward passive hostility.
>
> Maybe this would be an issue on which to get some interesting comments.

I am not hostile towards long-range comparison in general, but I have to
admit I've never bought the Nostratic hypothesis (not to mention mass
comparison and whatever comes of its use).

Piotr