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[Mark A Mandel]

        [Mark M]
> The LINGUIST List gets the occasional crank posting
>  announcing a website / mailing list /  book  about
>          Nostratic-Uralic-MacroDinean /
>          [other examples]

        [Jim Landau]
# Is Nostratic considered a crank theory?  My understanding is that
# Russian linguists in particular consider it worth further work.

I think many of those who do not espouse the Nostratic theory consider
it plausible but still unproven and perhaps unproveable. I was, rather,
generating as a typical example of a crank theory the hypothesis that
not only "Nostratic" but Uralic and Macro-Dinean share a common
ancestor. I do *not* hold any such belief, of course, and I don't know
that anyone does; it's a made-up example.

-- Mark A. Mandel