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
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