Pre-IE and migrations

[Glen Gordon]

RICK McCALLISTER:

>	HMMM. Uralic was to the north of IE but not as far north as now. As I
>remember, from what I read, it's generally posited at the line between the
>steppes and the taiga --in far E. Europe.
>I'm guessing that line was a bit farther to the south.

Ugh, yes. I guess I didn't explain that I consider Uralic part of a
"Steppe" grouping (also Yukaghir, Altaic, EskAleut and IE) because I
reason that this is the area that they came from previously and doesn't
refer to where they eventually ended up. Yes, Uralic is in the forested
regions off the steppe. I do not dispute this.

>	If the line went west of the steppes into Poland, Slovakia, Hungary or
>whatever. Both of you could be right.

But is Uralic said to be that far west? I thought it is agreed that the
area of the Volga is the place of the Uralic speaking core. Closer to
the Urals (hence the name). I'll admit my ignorance too. It seems like a
good strategy to avoid Manaster's all-pervading ire :)

Other than the lack of horses and Uralic similarity to IE, those are the
best two arguements I can think of to resist Miguel's idea. I'm losing
my imagination, I think. :)

MIGUEL:
>That's funny.  I tend think of North Caucasian (NEC/NWC) as the
>primary candidate for the original language of the steppe lands.

Even funnier, so do I! However, I think of North Caucasian (or at least
NEC) as the original languages spoken also in Northern Anatolia as well
(some consider Hattic and Hurro-Urartean as related to NEC as far as I
know) and I have a hunch this was the state of affairs many millenia
prior to IE (even during that genetic expansion mentioned) possibly even
back to a time of Nostratic (if I may mention the N-word in connection
with IE migrations).

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Glen Gordon
glengordon01 at hotmail.com

Kisses and Hugs
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