Re: Why do Pokorny's roots for water have an "a" in front?

[Top-posting corrected.]

At 6:22:33 PM on Sunday, December 9, 2012, Bhrihskwobhloukstroy wrote:

> 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.

> 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.

I don't think that the available evidence concerning rates
of linguistic change is compatible with a date *many*
millennia earlier, but I also don't see what difference it
makes. What scenario can you possibly imagine that does
*not* have IE speakers moving into regions populated by
non-IE speakers?

Brian