IE-Semitic connections

[Theo Vennemann]

>Well, we have a problem then because there was definitely some kind of
>contact (whether direct or indirect) between IE and Semitic. Both IE
>*s(w)eks "six" and *septm "seven" show painfully clear evidence of that,
>and yet I can't find any language group from which IE could have
>borrowed these words except for North Semitic itself.

>You say Akkadian may have came from the southwest but are the Akkadians
>the only offspring of North Semitic? Do we really know where other
>branches of North Semitic might have gone?

Those and related problems do not exist if the earliest Semitic-IE contacts
are assumed to have occurred in Europe.

In particular, you receive an elegant solution for Germanic and Etruscan
(and Basque) showing t-less forms of the seven-word: independent borrow-
ing of the t-less Semitic form.

Theo Vennemann
29 January 1999