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From: alderson@netcom18.netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: Origin of Dravidian
In-Reply-To: Peter k Chong's message of 21 Aug 1996 05:06:14 GMT
Message-ID: <ALDERSON.96Aug21100747@netcom18.netcom.com>
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Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 17:07:47 GMT
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In article <4ve5g6$oir@news.inforamp.net> Peter k Chong <peterk@inforamp.net>
writes:

>All he has done is offer word lists and I suppose he lets the reader make
>his/her own conclusions. Sound laws eh? Hmm do you mean Grimm's laws?

Word lists are insufficient evidence for relations among languages, although
Greenberg and Ruhlen might wish it otherwise.  To demonstrate relationship, it
is necessary to show the regular correspondences, and possible exceptions that
may exist, among the items in your lists.

The technical term for correspondence sets of this type, when restricted to
phonology, is "sound law" (a somewhat unfortunate term, but a term with two
centuries' usage behind it).  Grimm's Law is indeed a good example of such a
correspondence set; Verner's Law and Bartholomae's Law, for example, explain
apparent exceptions to Grimm's Law.

>Oh and by the way, if Elamite is not Sumerian related, then what the hell is
>related to? Could you give me some examples of Elamite to give me an idea of
>its then-supposed uniqueness?

The vehemence of your question puzzles me.  Elamite is related to Dravidian, as
shown by the sorts of correspondence sets outlined above.  How does Elamite not
being related to Sumerian make it unique?
-- 
Rich Alderson   You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
                of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
                logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
                know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
                as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
                what not.
                                                --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@netcom.com                               _The Notion Club Papers_
