The Neolithic Hypothesis

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

>mcv at wxs.nl writes:

>The Slavic lgs. split up some 1500 years ago, and the differences between
>Greek and Sanskrit and even Mycenaean/Vedic are bigger than that

-- true, but the Germanic languages have a similar time-depth (perhaps
slightly more)  and they're far more diverse.  The Slavic languages are
unusually uniform, given the degree of spread.  There's still a high degree of
mutual intelligibility.

Mycenaean and Vedic aren't mutually comprehensible, true, but they're
transparently very similar.  Even some stock poetic phrases are still pretty
much the same;  Homeric "heiron menos" and Vedic "ishiram manas", for
instance.

1000-1500 years seems more than ample.  Sometime between 3000 and 2500  BCE,
in other words.

>(now Vedic-Avestan does feel like somewhere in the 500-1500 year range).

-- far too long.  They're virtually the same language.  Eg.,

Avestan:  tam amavantam yazatem
Sanskrit:  tam amavantam yajatam

		   surem damohu sevistem
		   suram dhamasu savistham

		   mithrem yazai zaothrabyo
		   mitram yajai hotrabyah