Re: Nostratic vs. Proto-Nostratic (was RE: [Nostratica] Re: Swadesh

Andy:

I was uninformed about people who favor listing Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) as a sister group of Nostratic rather than a daughter group. Have they succeeded in changing the original structure of the language family tree? All people are equal in that they all are human beings. Yet they are unequal in terms of economics, education, social skills, religiosity, etc. This is a grand dilemma that plagued both Hegel and the Buddhists and it continues today as a double-edged sword. Any idea why folks wish to make Afro-Asiatic (a hypothetical construct) equal to Nostratic (another hypothetical construct) other than trying to claim superiority for Afro-Asiatic over Indo-European?

Gerry

----- Original Message -----

From: Andy Howey

To: Nostratica@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2003 6:46 AM

Subject: Nostratic vs. Proto-Nostratic (was RE: [Nostratica] Re: Swadesh Lists)

Gerry:

Nostratic is to Proto-Nostratic what Indo-European is to Proto-Indo-European. Nostratic is the name of the theoretic macro-family that encompasses Indo-European, Altaic, Uralic, etc., whereas Proto-Nostratic is the name of the theoretic "language" from which the resultant member languages (Proto-Indo-European, etc.) of the Nostratic macrofamily are descended/derived. Likewise with Indo-European. It is the name of the language family that encompasses Gemanic, Italic, Celtic, Slavic, Baltic, etc.). Proto-Indo-European is the "language" from which the member language groups are descended/derived.  In short, Nostratic is the name of the group, and Proto-Nostratic is the name of the language. Following and extending your statement below, one could say that there is no need for Proto-Indo-European because there is already the Indo-European language family. However, Proto-Nostratic and Proto-Indo-European are the root languages of their respective (mega-)families. Hopefully, this helps.

BTW, as I understand some of current classification proposals, there are people who favor listing Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) as a sister group of Nostratic rather than a daughter group. Therefore, instead of having

Nostratic    -    Indo-European

                      Afro-Asiatic

                      Uralic

                      Altaic

                      ...

We would have

Nostratic    -    Indo-European

                      Afro-Asiatic

                      Uralic

                      Altaic

                      ...

Afro-Asiatic    -    Semitic

                          Hamitic

                          Chadic

                           ....

Andy Howey