Northwest IE attributes

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/26/99 11:09:50 PM, Sean Crist wrote:

<<If you believe that there is a grouping of "NW IE" languages (and I put
quotes around it because I'm not clear on exactly which branches are to be
included in this clade- Celtic? Germanic? Balto-Slavic?), this amounts to
a claim that these branches are characterised by a set of shared
attributes of the sort which I just mentioned.  I'm interested in hearing
what shared characteristics are proposed as evidence.

(I earlier listed some of the evidence on whose basis Ringe et. al.
produced the tree which I quoted; I can repeat both the tree and the
evidence, if there's interest, but I hate to clutter the list with what's
already been said.)>>

Satem is still a very good way to separate I-Ir from the western group.  (I
believe the current stance is that satem may have been adopted by
Balto-Slavic.)  And Hittite separates itself from the northern group easily
enough.  That leaves a distinct NW IE group.

ON THE OTHER HAND:  No one to my knowledge has posted a list of the "shared
attributes" that the UPenn tree is based on.  The best I saw was the few you
posted on the list and the few posted on the web.  Neither have I seen any
list of the "directionality" adjustments that attach a time sequence to those
attributes.

It would be good to know - however - why *specifically* you think some group
of IE speakers could not have branched off from PIE right from the start and
moved Northwest.  That would be very interesting.

Regards,
Steve Long