Interesting. There might be something to be studied there. But keep in mind (as I'm sure you know) that you could compare lists of words in any two random languages and find lots of superficial similarities.
July 14, 2009, 21:25
mojobadshah
How would you explain the resemblance between the Sumerian and PIE forms listed in the above article? Do you think one group influenced the other or did they both develop from a common ancestor?
July 15, 2009, 15:33
goofy
I don't know what work has been done on a possible connection between Sumerian and PIE. The resemblances in that article could be coincidence.
July 16, 2009, 16:07
mojobadshah
There definitely appears to have been a connection between the Iranians and the Sumerians. I've noticed they share similar symbols as far as their art. Both use the Farohar-like symbol. There's the aforesaid lexical comparison of Sumerian and PIE. And, then the following link: The Language of the Harappan which mentions how the Av. asha "righteousness" come from the Sumerian asha.
But, what I don't get about this connection this wikipedia link Asha - etymology says is that the word goes back to a PIE root.
July 16, 2009, 16:23
goofy
The aforesaid lexical comparison is just a comparison, and as I said you can compare any two languages and find superficial similarities. What you need is a theory that explains how the words are related. If one was borrowed from the other, how did that happen. If they are descended from a common source, what did that source look like. As far as I know, there is no such theory.
That book you linked to seems to be ignoring established historical linguistics when it suggests that Sanskrit and Avestan might be descendants of Akkadian and Sumerian.
Secondly, what does it mean when one language's inflexions are more primitive than another language's inflexions?
July 27, 2009, 19:42
goofy
quote:
Originally posted by mojobadshah:
quote:
As far as I know, there is no such theory.
What about the Nostratic superfamily theory?
OK, there is a theory. I don't know anything about it.
quote:
Originally posted by mojobadshah: Secondly, what does it mean when one language's inflexions are more primitive than another language's inflexions?
Perhaps that means that they exhibit features that the other language has lost. What is the context?
July 27, 2009, 21:16
mojobadshah
quote:
Zarathushtra doubts to know. Prophets are gods in the flesh, and Zarathushtra, the prophet of Iran, was such a man-god. His date of birth, as we shall see in subsequent chapters, is placed anywhere between 600 B.C. and 6000 B.C. It is an uncontested fact that there is a marked closeness between the grammar, metre, and style of the Rig Veda and the Gathas. The Gathic inflexions are more primitive than the Vedic. The period of the position of the Gathas, therefore, cannot be separated from the Vedas by any considerable distance of time.