on the epistemological nature of historical linguistics...

[Gonzalo Rubio]

Changing the topic, I'd like to say something more or less unrelated to
the last discussion --as a sort of Agustinian "confessio" (actually, the
tone of this note may have more to do with my reading of St. Ignatius back
in the Jesuits). In many e-mail lists of historical linguistics, ancient
languages, or isolated languages (such as Basque), it is quite common to
see messages posted by well-intentioned persons who attempt to prove
Basque is an Algonquian language, or Albanian is not an Indo-European
language, but a dialect of Kechua. It is nice to see that so many people
are interested in languages within their historical context as a result of
their amazement at both diversity and resemblance. 
 
However, one may wonder why so many of these well-intentioned ladies and
gentlemen share their speculations with the scientific community almost
*only* in our field(s). Scholars working on Quantum Physics, Psychology,
or even History, don't have to deal with this deluge of "proposals" from
outsiders or amateurs. If I tell my father I have a new interesting
contribution to some surgical procedure (he's a physician), he would look
at me with a very ironic smile and say "don't you have anything better to
do?". Within this context, one may wonder what is the true epistemological
nature of historical linguistics. 
 
When a teenager, I was completely in love with the idea that Basque was
"the daughter" of Iberian. However, once I did study both Basque and the
Iberian inscriptions (as far as we can understand them) in the University,
I broke up with that lovely fiction. Now, slightly older and, who knows,
perhaps somewhat wiser, I'm an Assyriologist who works especially on
Sumerian (so, a Sumerologist). It is quite curious that a person who was
(and is) that interested in historical linguistics, has ended up working
in one (Sumerian) of the few completely isolated languages (together with
Basque and Burushaski). 
 
It is natural that people, especially those who don't know a single word
on these completely isolated languages, or even on historical linguistics,
have some curiosity about them. And that's the beginning of the deluge. 
Does any of you know how many theories on the linguistic filiation of, for
instance, Sumerian have been proposed?  Well, just by heart, I can list
several: 
 
	- Dravidian (Aiyar, David, Sathasivam, Koskinen, Quintana)
	- the Indus Valley inscriptions --which nobody can read, but might
be Dravidian, according to Asko Parpola's last book-- (Kinnier Wilson)
	- different Caucasian languages (Bork, Knobloch)
	- Indo-European (Autran, Holmer)
	- Old Persian (Schildmann)
	- Polynesian and Amerindian languages (Stucken)
	- "Sino-Caucasian"/"Dene-Caucasian" (Bengston, Blazek, Boisson)
	- "Uralo-Altaic" (Boisson, Zakar)
	- Hungarian (Gostony --if you want to have a good laugh, read the
reviews of his _Dictionaire d'etymologie sumerienne..._ by Edzard, in
_BSOAS 39 [1976], and by Hrushka, in _OLZ_ 74 [1979])
	- "Nostratic" (Boisson, Bomhard, Koskinen)
 
Rather than in this "comparative" stuff, I have found many interesting
suggestions in those papers devoted to Wanderwoerter, Kulturwoerter, or
Arealwoerter --especially those by Boisson, Blazek, and Militarev, three
scholars whose stuff on this topic (Wanderwoerter and very early loans) is
always a pleasure to read, although one may disagree with some of their
points.
 
However, most of the allegedly comparative studies I have just mentioned
and have read very carefully in the last years, remind me of the title of
the book published by le Chevalier de Paravey in 1885, _Memoire sur
l'o¢rigin japonais, arabe et basque de la civilisation des peuple du
plateau de Bogota_ (yes, it's Bogota, Colombia).
 
My note/"confessio" is not about Sumerian, but about this amazing
phenomenon: hundreds of well-intentioned dilettanti devoting their time
and energy to the search for the Grail of linguistic filiations. Actually,
somehow I admire them. Aren't they "the last Romantics"...?
 
------------------------
Gonzalo Rubio
Near Eastern Studies
Johns Hopkins University
gonzalor at jhu.edu
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