the Wheel and Dating PIE

[Eduard Selleslagh]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Trask" <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 5:24 PM

> Roz Frank writes:

>>  And even if PIE were posited as an
>>  isolate, would one not have to propose that, nonetheless, the
>>  proto-language, too, would have had the full characteristics of a human
>>  language, with the likelihood of suppletions, irregularities and substrata.

> Of course, except that there is no particular reason to posit any
> significant substrate influences.

[Ed]

Nor to posit the contrary, since we don't know the origin(s) of (wide) PIE.
Unless you believe in the Nostratic hypothesis and the like.

Nonetheless, we might find some elements in common with other, reputedly older,
language groups like Uralic, or even Basque (e.g. via some extinct early parent
or relative of one, that evolved in another area) , which could be interpreted
as loans from those groups (or as a common substrate or heritage), although it
is not always possible to determine which way the loan went.

After reading Ante Aikio's contributions, I suspect Uralic might begin to shed
'some' light on this matter. On the Basque side we have the intriguing matter
of a number of suffixes that also pop up in IE (e.g.-z-ko <> -(s)ko in Slavic,
basically with the 'same' meaning and use).

Ed.