Language Families

[TruBluPooh at aol.com]

Em uma mensagem de 6/5/00 11:56:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
mdmorris at indiana.edu escreveu:

<< With so many good linguists on the list, I hope someone might confirm or
 correct my understanding that neither Finnish, Hungarian nor Basque are
 Indo-European languages.  Thanks,  Mark Morris
  >>

You are correct in understanding that none of these languages are
Indo-European.  Finnish and Hungarian belong to the Finno-Ugric family along
with such languages as Estonian, Sami, Karelian, Nenets and Khanty.  Basque
is currently understood to be an isolate language, though a connection to
Georgian and other Caucasian languages is being pursued.  Other linguists
believe it may be related to some non-Arabic North African languages.  Yet,
others believe it to be entirely in situ.  The fact that some basic Basque
words seem to be derived from even simpler concepts i.e. aizkora (axe)
sharing the same root as the word aitz (rock) may mean that Basque is an
extremely old language.

John-Francis Fragoso Grasso