Update on *nekw and the N-word

[Patrick C. Ryan]

Dear Yoel and IEists:

-----Original Message-----
From: Yoel L. Arbeitman <yoel at mindspring.com>
Date: Thursday, March 11, 1999 5:56 PM

> It is suggested that you look in any of Bomhard's three books: Towards
>Proto-Nostratic (CILT 27, 1984), The Nostratic Macrofamily (Mouton, 1994,
>co-authored with John A. Kerns and dealing also with morphology and
>syntax). On p.380ff. his unitary phoneme TL is dealt with. It is a
>reconstruct whose appearence in his sub-Nostratic languages are quite
>different. The third book is Indo-European and the Nostratic Hypothesis
>(Signum, 1996).

I do have Bomhard's work, and, though I believe he is essentially on the
right track, I believe his reconstruction of a lateralized affricate is,
first of all, probably unjustified; but secondly, typologically
unacceptable.

Of course, it is difficult to judge from the way he presents his cognates.
For example, his #200, PN *tl~{h}i/er-, 'highest point', is rendered in PIE
as *k{h}e/or-/*k{h}R-, which is fine, but for PAA as *tl~{h}a/6r-. This is
almost certainly related to Arabic qarn-un, 'horn', and so I do not believe
there is any justification for a PAA *tl~{h} underlying it.

Pat