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From: petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Some more crackpot linguistics (was Re: Thera)
Message-ID: <petrichDF7rqM.5CI@netcom.com>
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References: <DEtoEp.H69@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca> <DEz2KI.H69@netlink.perkin-elmer.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 17:11:09 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.archaeology:30354 sci.lang:43104

In article <DEz2KI.H69@netlink.perkin-elmer.com>,
Karl King  <kingke@perkin-elmer.com> wrote:

>The so-called Hittite Empire was invented from Chaldean 
>remains mainly to satisfy the Aryanists' need for a masterly 
>presence of "Indo-Europeans" in the Middle East in Biblical 
>times. ...

	First off, there is a difference from being in Turkey (Hittites) 
and being in Iraq (Chaldeans). Second off, there is an abundance of 
Hittit writing that has come down to us; though it was cuneiform on clay 
tablets, its language is distinct from Akkadian (remember, boys and 
girls, writing system != language).

	This writing shows clearly that Hittite is an Indo-European 
language, thanx to numerous grammatical and vocabulary features.

... the Max 
>Muller-ites ignored perfectly reasonable word borrowings from 
>Semite and Egyptian sources in favor of their bizarre and 
>outrageously strained derivations of Greek words from 
>Sanskrit.

	Like what? Here again, Greek is recognizably an Indo-European 
language, thanx again to numerous grammatical and vocabulary features.

	Simply compare noun and verb endings, and also compare basic 
vocabulary like various prepositions, "to be", "1" to "10", "100",  close 
relatives like "father", "mother", "brother", "sister", "son", 
"daughter", natural phenomena like "Sun", "Moon", "star", "day", "night", 
"water", body parts like "head", "eye", "nose", "mouth", "tooth", 
"tongue", "ear", "arm", "hand", "leg", "foot", ... and don't forget "name".

	And try considering words for such animals as "wolf", "fish", 
"dog", "cow", "horse", "pig", "louse" (and its egg, "nit"), "mouse", ...

	They don't *exactly* match, but one can find several sound 
correspondences that are remarkably regular. And the IE languages form a 
coherent cluster that does *not* include the Semitic languages (which 
form another such cluster) or ancient Egyptian.

	One good source, at least for "native" words and words that got 
borrowed into modern English, is the American Heritage Dictionary 
(English language). There are a whole lot of Old English, Latin, and 
Greek forms, with some from other Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, 
and some others.

	And I challenge *anyone* who disagrees to demonstrate otherwise.
-- 
Loren Petrich				Happiness is a fast Macintosh
petrich@netcom.com			And a fast train
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