Geraldine Reinhardt wrote:

Ned,
First of all apparently your application to join last week didn't register
but I have just approved your membership.  You are now a  member of
Nostratica.  Welcome.

Yes, I understand that the Nostratic Language is a mega language
(conjectured) which includes I-E, Uralic & Altaic, Semitic (Cushitic),
Kartvelian, Dravidian, and Yukaghirian.

I didn't realize that Nostratic was synonymous with Proto-Nostratic.....

It is not.

It is easy to explain via an example. English, Dutch, German, Swedish etc are members of
a set which is called the (set of) Germanic (languages) e.g. the name for this set of languages
is "Germanic". It is hypothesized that these languages descend from a single/unitary language
called Proto-Germanic.

had
been under the impression that Proto meant ancestor to (or coming before).
I also was unaware that Nostratic LanguageS (in the plural) were languages
descended from a single ProtoNostratic language such as Proto-IndoEuropean.

English is Germanic, and hence it is descended from proto-Germanic. But protoGermanic is
descended from ProtoNostratic hence, English is "Nostratic".

Another example: Honda is a car. A car is a vehicle. Hence Honda is a vehicle.

Now that's REALLY confusing.   Plus, your listing below:
"Proto-Indo-European,  Proto-Afro-Asiatic, Proto-Uralic, Latin, English,
Spanish, Arabic,  Hebrew, Tamil, Turkish, Korean...and on and on" is
haphazard and includes languages and proto languages that show no
subordination one to another.  For example:  Latin and English and Spanish
are all members of Indo-European.  Perhaps you need to research the
hierarchy of language families on the web (if indeed there is any
pre-ordained hierarchy).  Actually, the more I ponder this concept I also
have difficulty separating a language from a regional dialect.

About Homo erectus not having a language -- we simply aren't sure of that.
What we do know is that manipulating fire was known to erectus (plus he/she
lived in a group) and to manage fire takes the ability to communicate.
Whether or not this communication was verbal or not, we cannot be positive.

Gerry

----- Original Message -----
From: <ehlsmith@...>
To: "Geraldine Reinhardt" <waluk@...>
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 9:59 AM
Subject: Re: Swadesh Lists



> Gerry- when one speaks of "THE Nostratic Language" it means the
> conjectured single common language which some believe to be the
> ancestor of the Indo-European languages, the Afro-Asiatic languages,
> the Dravidian languages, the Uralic languages, the Altaic languages
> and so forth. This conjectural single language is also referred to as
> Proto-Nostratic. When one speaks of "Nostratic LanguageS" in the
> plural it means all the languages supposed to be descended from that
> single ProtoNostratic language, for example Proto-Indo-European,
> Proto-Afro-Asiatic, Proto-Uralic, Latin, English, Spanish, Arabic,
> Hebrew, Tamil, Turkish, Korean...and on and on.
>
> In any case all of these would have nothing to do with whatever
> language, if any, spoken by Homo Erectus, which became extinct long
> before Nostratic may have been spoken.
>
> By the way, what is happening with my application to join the list? I
> submitted it about a week ago, and haven't heard anything yet. I
> resubmitted again today.
>
> Ned Smith





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