Re: learning about Nostratic

Richard Wordingham writes:

> Much of the section on these
> groupings is clearly labelled as
> uncertain. However, the section on
> the classification of Iranian is
> not. It lists at the same level
> both the group of Persian dialects
> and individual Persian dialects,
> such as Tajik.

Yes, the classification of Iranian becomes very problematic. First
we have the problem of which languages are extinct (and then the
difficulty with when they became extinct). The concept of extinction
is a hard nut to crack whether it's in biology or linguistics. Now
about Tajik, is it a variety of Modern Persian or an individual
language family?

> It is not true to say that Welsh is
> spoken in the south of England and
> English is spoken in the north.

You're probably correct although it wouldn't have been my saying it;
rather it was said by Alekseev. In general terms though, where in
England is Welsh spoken?

> You seem not to appreciate that
> 'Anatolian' is ambiguous - it may
> mean pertaining to the
> geographicalarea of Asia Minor
> orto the languages related to
> Hittite.

IMO, many of the language groupings are ambiguous. Many of them
overlap.

Gerry