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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Sun Language Theory? (was Re: Finnish related to Turkish?)
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References: <5a7qak$8fc@nyheter.chalmers.se> <01bbf7fd$939f5560$a482b6c7@default> <5afapa$ec1@cpmt.cyberport.net> <5aotll$6t4@cpmt.cyberport.net>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 22:02:46 GMT
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In article <5aotll$6t4@cpmt.cyberport.net>,
Murat Kalinyaprak <murat@cyberport.net> wrote:
>I'm reposting this since some of my articles since
>January 1 don't seem to be distributed on usenet.
[...]
>The initial list, posted by Peter Chong, compared
>70 Sumerian words to Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish,
>and Mongolian, showing what many people would see
>to be similarities between those languages...
>
>As people having an allergy to such a possibility
>often do, you and a couple others displayed their
>"pre-wired" reaction and jumped to dismiss it, by
>picking on a single word out of that list...
>
>And the "father" word you chose was obviously one
>of the easiest targets. (as it is among the words
>most questionable in such comparisons)
>
>But what happened to the rest of the words...? Of
>course none of you arrogant smarties has yet been
>capable of answering this question...! :)

Haven't you seen *any* of the numerous posts by native speakers of Finnish
and Turkish pointing out the many errors in the data?  I'm sure if there
were more native speakers of Mongolian, Mansy, etc. on Usenet, even more
flaws in the data would be found.

>The questions are very simple:
>
>"Are there, or are there not similarities between 
>"the Sumerian and Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish and
>"Mongolian words in the list that was posted...?"

You're missing a crucial element of language reconstruction:  They have to
be *regular* similarities, the results of *exceptionless* sound changes.
Anybody can find resemblances between sets of words; finding patterns of  
correspondences is considerably tougher.  Why is Mr. Chong starting with
modern forms anyway?  If he really wants to prove a relationship, why
doesn't he compare Sumerian to reconstructed Proto-Finno-Ugric and
Proto-Altaic?

[snip]
>"Are there, or are there not similarities between 
>"the Sumerian and Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish and
>"Mongolian words in the list that was posted...?"

Yes.

>"If there are some similarities, can you find and
>"demostrate equal amounts of similarities between
>"Sumerian and German, Spanish, Zulu, Cherokee,
>"Andes and Kurdish (as you claimed)...?"

What would this prove?

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
