Anatolia and Indo-European

[W Brewer]

WB: I have been saving for my Golden Years wading through Gamkrelidze &
Ivanov 1995 (Indo-European & the Indo-Europeans, a Reconstruction &
Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language & a Proto-Culture, 864+ pages;
foreword by Roman Jakobson, FWIW). I should start any day now, but long
naps have taken priority so far. Since it has been so long since I left
Indo-European Studies (when the Kurgan Hypothesis reigned supreme, and
Maria Gimbutas had morphed into the Mother Goddess), I remain neutral,
uncommitted, indecisive in this old philological game.
Offhand, G&I present a very comprehensive pIE Urheimat argument. They take
Woerter & Sachen to an ultimate degree, combining that technique with
standard comparative linguistics & archeology.
JB: <<<Surely the I-E family did not originate in modern-day Turkey.>>
WB: No, it was olden-day Turkey, whence spread the Neolithic Revolution
(i.e. agriculture 7000 BC+), according to Gamkrelidze & Ivanov. Gimbutas
located her Kurgans 4000+ BC in the southern Ukraine.
JB: <<<So the Anatolians "beat their swords into plowshares" (Isaiah 2:4;
see also Micah 4:3 and ... Joel 3:10)>>>
WB: And vice versa, Joel. Hittites & Israelites often beat their swords
into each other. Philistines could have been originally from Anatolia, a
wandering Sea People settling & beating swords and lending their name to
Palestine. (So, if the Philistines had been Indo-European, could the
descendents of the proto-Indo-Europeans lay prior claim to Palestine? Hmm.
Need a holy book to sanction that, I guess.)
HS wrote: <<<Gamkrelidze & Ivanov . . . Their homeland arguments are
independent of their controversial glottalic hypothesis.>>>
WB: On the contrary, G&I locate pIE in the Balkan-Turkmenia region
precisely to explain linguistic interaction with south Caucasian and
Semitic, especially with regard to consonant systems (3-stop series,
glottalized/pharyngealized, voiced/voiceless) (p.768). Their tome
consistently uses their glottalic notation, particularly irritating for an
old Pokorny-ite.

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