The Neolithic Hypothesis (Germanic)

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/13/99 3:02:01 AM, whiting at cc.helsinki.fi wrote:

<<Ah, I get it now.  The Ur-Germans were too poor to afford new
words and too primitive to think up their own so they were just
stuck with what they had.  I can see it all now:>>

I didn't catch this when it came on the list.

And B-T-W that's not what I wrote.  And I'm sure the writer is aware of that.

Let's go to our [ironic] Ur friends to get back on track:

Ur-Hans:  UF, why is whiting at cc.helsinki.fi talking about handshoes when he
should be talking about "archaisms" the way Miguel used the term in those
earlier posts?

Ur-Fritz:  I don't know, Hans-to-be.  Perhaps whiting at cc.helsinki.fi is
avoiding the issue.

Ur-Hans:  Well, if we were cut off from the so-called "innovative core" does
that explain why we would compound words?

Ur-Fritz:  The Greeks used compounds and recycled words all the time.  No,
it's probably just whiting at cc.helsinki.fi - that archaeological evidence was
a bit too much.  Honest dialogue might address whether the idea of a cut-off
is valid in terms of history and linguistics.  It's easier to just make us up
than to actually address the evidence presented.

Ur-Hans:  What was it that whiting at cc.helsinki.fi wrote?  Oh, here it is...
<<Is it possible that Germanic peoples are simply conservative by nature,
resisting change with a fervor...>>  Although we will have to wait for
re-contact with Greek culture to develop terms that have -ology in them, I'd
bet my handshoe that is "pop sociology".

Ur-Fritz:  Or worse, Hans-someday.  If I'm right, we may actually be Ur-Danes
and we Danes will learn not to like that "ubergeist" kind of talk.  But more
importantly, Germanic is not conservative.  Even we know the functional
difference between archaic and conservative.

Ur-Hans:  And us being poor and cut-off by the Celts from the south, isn't
that sociology?

Ur-Fritz:  No, it's called hard evidence about what happened in pre-history,
proto-Hans.  It may explain certain features (but not handshoe) in Germanic
-that whiting at cc.helsinki.fi doesn't care to address - in terms of "mutual
contact" or lack of it.  Cultural anthropologists, historians, archaeologist
and linguists use the term.  Although sociology can use hard statistical
evidence, you have to be rigorous or you'll end up saying very unscientific
things like  <<Germanic peoples are simply conservative by nature, resisting
change with a fervor...>>.  That's pseudo-science.

Ur-Hans:  Sounds like that could cause some trouble in the days ahead.

Ur-Fritz:  Oh, it will, Hans.  It will.

That's the latest [irony] from Ur-
Steve Long