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From: alderson@netcom16.netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: Proto-world, origin of language
In-Reply-To: hvlcrt@axess.com's message of 16 Jan 1997 09:32:37 GMT
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Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 20:40:45 GMT
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In article <5bksjl$deb@news.axess.com> hvlcrt@axess.com (H.V) writes:

>I read an article recently in a magazine about a book by Merrit Ruhlen which
>proposes a theoretical Original Language for all human beings. I'vetried to
>find information in the internet about this topic, but wasn't able to find
>anything.  can anyone point me to any useful sites, or will i have to buy the
>book?

No one else seems to have responded to this, so I'll have a go at it.

To start with, Merritt Ruhlen is very nearly alone in his belief that he has
anything of interest to say about Proto-World.  His methodology is adopted from
Joseph Greenberg; both have been roundly criticized in professional circles for
the weaknesses thereof, neither with any response other than "You just don't
understand what we're doing!"

I'm aware of a web site run by Loren Petrich, an habitue of sci.lang, which
covers the issues of the Nostratic super-family, which is a long way from
Proto-World.  I do *not* know of web sites devoted to any of the other proposed
macro-families, at any level, nor of popular books which would counteract the
at least fallacious if not outright mendacious picture Ruhlen provides of
methodologies other than his own, and so cannot recommend that you purchase his
book.
-- 
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_
