Hello H.M. Hubey,
Thanks for your alternate opinion that Nostratic is NOT synonymous with
Proto-Nostratic. That's what I think as well. IMO, if Nostratic is
the megalanguage family, then there should NOT be a need for
Proto-Nostratic.
You write:
English is Germanic, and hence it is descended from proto-Germanic. But
protoGermanic is
descended from ProtoNostratic hence, English is
"Nostratic".
I
reply:
Yes, English is
Germanic (IMO descended from Germanic). Because English is a subgroup of
Germanic which is a subgroup of Indo-European, which in turn is a sub-group of
Nostratic, an hierarchical structure is established.
Yes, I also understand your automotive
example. Except Honda, vehicle, and car all mean the same thing. Are
you perhaps implying that languages should have the same "non-hierarchical"
measurements?
This becomes a tricky etymological problem. Please explain
further.
Gerry
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 5:56
PM
Subject: Re: [Nostratica] Re: Swadesh
Lists
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