Re: t > k, kVr turn, and Language Expansions

Richard Wordingham wrote:

> Mark:
> > The *th and *dh are very useful since we can have *ath>aw > u,o and
> *adh
> > > ay> e,i.
> > That would only require a single vowel as a start.
>
> Richard:
> So useful, I fear, that little confidence can be placed in any
> reconstruction that invokes them. You speak as though you were
> playing scrabble!
>
> Mark:
> Well, I am reading the book by Bomhard and Kerns and in the beginning
> there
> is a
> long discussion of the sound changes of IE. Right now I am on the
> section by
> Szmerenyi, and it looks so far like a perfect case of "overfitting".
>
> Mine is the reverse. It is minimalism.
>
> Richard:
> Some of this internal reconstruction would certainly benefit from checks
> from outside IE. The two confident internal reconstructors on the list,
> Jens and Miguel, do take an interest in Nostratic links.

I wrote about the difference between (1) reconstructing from
reconstructions, and (2) reconstruction
from raw data.

I see more value in my reconstruction.

Overfitting data is dangerous, and that is the stage IE has reached and
passed.

>
>
> Richard:
> Thanks. I mangled the question. In which languages do we have nalmaz,
> almas, nakut and yakut, and what do nakut and yakut mean?

nalmaz KBal, almas KBal, almas Turkic, etc almas Arabic, elmas Turkish
nakut KBal, yakut Turkish, yakut Arabic

almas=diamond, yakut= ruby

Notice the yan (catch fire, burn), and yak (to set fire)., yaldiz
(shine), etc. in Turkic


--
Mark Hubey
hubeyh@...
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey