Anatolians

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

Rick Mc Callister <rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu> wrote:

>Would your outline would be something like this?
>Outliers are marked with *

>I.IE to c. 5500 BCE
>A. *Anatolian c. 5500 BCE
>B. Non-Anatolian IE 5500 BCE
>	1. *Tocharian c. 5000 BCE
>	2. Eastern [Steppe] IE c. 5000/4500 BCE
>		a. Indo-Iranian 3200 BC
>		b. Greco-Armenian [Thracian?] 3200 BC
>			i. Hellenic
>			ii. *Armenian
>			iii. Thracian-Phrygian

Too little is known about Thracian and Phrygian to call them.
I've also grown rather dubious about Greco-Armenian.  The
similarities between Greek and Armenian (mainly in vocabulary)
must be secondary, resulting from interaction in the Balkans, but
Armenian must've split off from the main body of IE containing
Greek earlier.

>	3. Central/Western [LBK] IE c. 5000/4500 BCE
>		a. Germano-Balto-Slavic 4500-4000? BCE
>			i. Balto-Slavic 4000 BCE [GBS Sprachbund 3K-1K BCE]
>			ii. *Germanic 4000 BCE [GBS Sprachbund 3K-1K BCE]

Same doubts about GBS as about Armeno-Greek.  Secondary
interactions.

>		b. Celto-Italic-Venetic-etc. [Illyrian?] 4500-2000 BCE?
>			i. Celtic 2000 BCE
>			ii. Italic 2000 BCE
>			iii. Venetic 2000 BCE
>			iv. ?Illyrian? 2000 BCE?
>			v. Lusitanian? 2000 BCE?

Nothing is known about Illyrian, little about Venetic or
Lusitanian.

>	And there the question of what Albanian is/was.
>	Is it the remains of whatever Balkan IE language was there before
>Greco-Armenian?

My feeling is that it's somewhat intermediate between Greek and
Balto-Slavic, maybe leaning more towards the BS side.  Although
it also has some things in common with Italo-Celtic in the verbal
system.  It seems much more logical that it would be descended
from Illyrian rather than from Thracian (much more Latin than
Greek borrowings), and I can say that with impunity, as *nothing*
is known about Illyrian (not even if it was a single language
group).

The diagram as I posted it some time ago:

Stage 1.  Anatolian splits off (actually, PIE (LBK) splits off:
5500).

Anatolian <-- PIE

Stage 2.  Tocharian splits off (c. 5000 ?).

Anatolian ; PIE --> Tocharian

Stage 3.  Germanic and Armenian split off (4000?).

Anatolian ; Germanic <-- PIE --> Armenian ; Tocharian

Stage 4/5.  Final break-up of PIE (3500).

Anatolian; Germanic ; Italo-Celtic <-- Greek-Indo-Iranian -->
Balto-Slavic , Albanian ; Armenian ; Tocharian

So the original tree would be:

                         PIE
                        /   \
                Anatolian   /\
                           /  \
                          /\   Tocharian
                         /  \
                        /\  /\
                       /  | | \
               Germanic   | |  Armenian
                          | |\
              Italo-Celtic  | \
                           / \ Albanian
                          /   \
                         /\    Balto-Slavic
                        /  \
                   Greek   Indo-Iranian

After that, the situation was slightly complicated by secondary
interactions between Germanic and Balto-Slavic, and
Greek/Albanian/Armenian.

Stage 6.  Balkan and Baltic interaction spheres (3000-2500).

Anatolian [Greece/Anatolia]; Greek/Albanian/Armenian [Balkan];
Italo-Celtic [Bell Beaker]; Germanic/Balto-Slavic [Corded Ware];
Indo-Iranian [(pre-)Andronovo]; Tocharian [Yenisei/Sinkiang]

Stage 7.  Further interactions (2000-1000).

Anatolian/Armenian [Anatolia]; Greek/Albanian/Italic
[Mediterranean]; Celtic/Germanic [NW Europe];
Balto-Slavic/Iranian [E Europe/C Asia/Iran]; Indic [India];
Tocharian[/Iranian] [Sinkiang]

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam