Whence do You have such a certainty? Obviously "PIE clearly clearly
originated in an area much smaller than that in which the IE languages
were spoken 3000 years ago" and it's also probable (though not proven,
but I find it anyway more probable than anything else) that a
phonologically unitary diasystem ancestor to the IE languages was
(still) in existence say 4000-3500 years BC(E), but having said that
no one is yet that PIE origins - and their restricted homeland - are
to be put precisely then and not many millennia before. Lexical
divergences within PIE can have developed either faster than in later
History (and then You all can be right) or at the same rate (if You
believe, as it seems, in Glottochronology) or slower (this is equally
possible, unless You maintain Glottochronology is a demonstrated
fact). But I know very well You all don't believe it and prefer to
keep Your ideas, so please forgive me for having not succeeded in
avoiding once again a reply and let's leave this discussion...
2012/12/10, Brian M. Scott <
bm.brian@...>:
> At 5:50:26 PM on Sunday, December 9, 2012,
> Bhrihskwobhloukstroy wrote:
>
>> Complete agreement for all the rest, but why are You all
>> so sure that there were pre-PIE languages?
>
> PIE clearly originated in an area much smaller than that in
> which the IE languages were spoken 3000 years ago, say. The
> larger region was not uninhabited prior to the arrival of IE
> speakers.
>
> Brian
>
>