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Author Topic:   The Origins Of Afro-Asiatic
Thought2
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posted 26 December 2004 08:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thought Posts:

Science. 2004
Christopher Ehret, S. O. Y. Keita, Paul Newman;, and Peter Bellwood
December 2004; 306: (5702) 1680

Thought Writes:

Does anyone have access to this research article or journal?

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 03:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thought Writes:

I was able to obtain the Letter to the Editor from a local library. I don't have it in electronic form, but will give you some selected quotes. The Letter entails an initial Letter to the editors from Ehret, Keita and Newman in response to the Review "Farmers and their languages: the first expansions" by Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood dated April 25, 2003. Bellwood responds to Ehret et al.

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rasol
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posted 27 December 2004 03:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

I was able to obtain the Letter to the Editor from a local library. I don't have it in electronic form, but will give you some selected quotes. The Letter entails an initial Letter to the editors from Ehret, Keita and Newman in response to the Review "Farmers and their languages: the first expansions" by Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood dated April 25, 2003. Bellwood responds to Ehret et al.


Much obliged!

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 03:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thought Writes:

Essentially Ehret, Keita and Newman use linguistic (Afro-Asiatic), archeaological (Mushabian Complex) and genetic (M35/215 lineage) in support of a Horn of Africa or South East saharan origin for the Afro-Asiatic proto-family. We have been through most of this before so I will only offer one of the most interesting quotes;

"Furthermore, the archaeology of northern Africa does not support demic diffusion of farming from the Near East. The evidence presented by Wetterstrom indicates that early African farmers in the Fayum initially INCORPORATED Near Eastern domesticates INTO an INDIGENOUS foraging strategy, and only OVER TIME developed a dependence on horticulture. This is inconsistant with in-migrating farming settlers, who would have brought a more ABRUPT change in subsistence strategy."

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S.Mohammad
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posted 27 December 2004 03:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for S.Mohammad     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

Essentially Ehret, Keita and Newman use linguistic (Afro-Asiatic), archeaological (Mushabian Complex) and genetic (M35/215 lineage) in support of a Horn of Africa or South East saharan origin for the Afro-Asiatic proto-family. We have been through most of this before so I will only offer one of the most interesting quotes;

"Furthermore, the archaeology of northern Africa does not support demic diffusion of farming from the Near East. The evidence presented by Wetterstrom indicates that early African farmers in the Fayum initially INCORPORATED Near Eastern domesticates INTO an INDIGENOUS foraging strategy, and only OVER TIME developed a dependence on horticulture. This is inconsistant with in-migrating farming settlers, who would have brought a more ABRUPT change in subsistence strategy."


Please offer more info, thats very interesting

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 03:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Posts:

"Furthermore, the archaeology of northern Africa does not support demic diffusion of farming from the Near East. The evidence presented by Wetterstrom indicates that early African farmers in the Fayum initially INCORPORATED Near Eastern domesticates INTO an INDIGENOUS foraging strategy, and only OVER TIME developed a dependence on horticulture. This is inconsistant with in-migrating farming settlers, who would have brought a more ABRUPT change in subsistence strategy."



Thought Writes:

This is consistent with the archaeological record in the Badarian and Naqada cultures. The Badarians were essentially semi-nomadic cattle herders who hunted, fished and raised Winter Crops on the side. This was essentially the same subsistence pattern practiced by the Western Desert folks at Nabta Playa, Dahkla Oasis, etc, except in the Western Desert they cultivated Sorghum (summer rainfall crop) instead of Wheat and barley (winter rainfall crops). The use of crops probably relates to the shift of the winter rainfall pattern to the northern Nile Valley. Summer rainfall crops would be harder to cultivate in such an ecological niche. In fact, it was not until the late Naqada II period that AE became essentially dependent on horticulture.

Thought Posts:

Genesis of the Pharaohs
Toby Wilkinson
Page 184 and 185

"...it seems very likely that cattle-herding was what took the Badarians away from their Nile villages on a regular basis. They combined a pastoral way of life with SMALL-SCALE agriculture, whenever the opportunity arose, and a good of hunting."

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 04:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:

Thought Writes:

In fact, it was not until the late Naqada II period that AE became essentially dependent on horticulture.


Thought Writes:

Correction, I should have stated: "In fact, it was not until the late Naqada I period that AE became essentially dependent on horticulture."

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 04:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thought Posts:

Genesis of the Pharaohs
Toby Wilkinson
Page 184 and 185

" In its essential characteristics, the Naqada I period shows a great deal of continuity from the preceding phase. There is NO SUDDEN BREAK, either in the way of life or in the products which have survived in the archaeological record. People still combined cattle-herding with LIMITED AGRICULTURE...".

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 04:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thought Writes:

In fact, during the Early Neolithic along the river the ONLY permanent village site was found at merimda, and this site was less complex than the Nubian, Upper and Middle Egyptian sites.

Thought Posts:

Ancient Egypt in Africa
Edited by o'Connor and Reid
"The African Foundations Of Ancient Egyptian Civilization"
By David Wengrow

"In Egypt, the only clear evidence for permanent village life during the early neolithic period derives from Merimda Beni Salama, on the fringes of the Nile Delta. The material culture of this site, and the burials found there, exhibit little sign of the technological innovations, circulation of exotic materials, and elaborate forms of personal display evident in contemporary cemeteries of the Nile Valley."

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rasol
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posted 27 December 2004 04:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I take it the letter from Keita/Ehret was in response to Diamond and Bellwood advocating diffusion of argriculture into the Nile Valley from Mesopotamia?

[This message has been edited by rasol (edited 27 December 2004).]

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 04:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by rasol:
I take it the letter from Keita/Ehret was in response to Diamond and Bellwood advocating diffusion of argriculture into the Nile Valley from Mesopotamia?
[This message has been edited by rasol (edited 27 December 2004).]

Thought Writes:

Actually Colin Renfrew, Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood ("Liberals" by the way) and the McDonald Institute in general seem to advocate a Natufian origin for Afro-Asiatic. Even more interesting than the Letter from Ehret et al., is the response from P. Bellwood.....

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 05:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Science. 2004
Christopher Ehret, S. O. Y. Keita, Paul Newman;, and Peter Bellwood
December 2004; 306: (5702) 1680

Thought Writes:

Below are selected quotes from Bellwoods response to Ehret et al.

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 05:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Bellwood Quote:

"Militarev's reconstructed proto-Afro-Asiatic vocabulary, whether "agricultural" or not, is also peopled with animals and plans of Levant, not African, origin and matches a Natufian cultural landscape."

Thought Commentary:

I would be interested in knowing SPECIFICALLY which flora and fauna he is referring to and to see Ehret’s response to this statement. O. Bar-Yosef states that Natufian fauna include Gazelle, Wild Cattle, Deer, Wild Boar, Wild Goat and the Ibex. Many of these animals are also indigenous to North Africa (Gazelle, Wild Cattle, Ibex, etc). At any rate, if Militarev reconstructs proto-Afro-Asiatic on the basis of Semitic of course these animals would have great antiquity. One would have to read Militarev’s paper in “Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis” to understand this questionable line of evidence. At any rate, this is his STRONGEST argument and it is weak at best given the fact that he gives no specifics. This entire debate really comes down to a last ditch effort to resurrect the Hamitic Hypothesis via the “Nostratic Language” concept.

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 05:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Bellwood Quote:

"The Egyptian Neolithic economy, however, was manifestly of Levant and not African origin."

Thought Commentary:

The funny thing is while Ehret et al. have sources and references from linguistics, archaeology, genetics and archaeology Bellwood ONLY has linguistic references to support his position. Virtually EVERY recent archaeologist that has studied the early Egyptian Neolithic realizes that the Egyptians gradually adopted Near Eastern domesticates and incorporated them INTO their pre-existing system with the gradual ecological collapse of the semi-arid Sahara.

Thought Posts:

The Prehistory of Egypt
Beatrix Midant-Reynes
Pg. 232

“From an ecological point of view, the final stages of the predynastic were characterized by the gradual movement of human settlements from the deserts towards the river valley; this phenomenon, which had been well underway as early as the Naqada II phase, was greatly exacerbated , bringing with it the relative abandonment of pastoralism, and the adoption of intensified agriculture, backed by systematic irrigation.”

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 05:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Bellwood Quote:

"There is no significant archaeological evidence for a population movement from Africa into the Levant, whether Mesolithic or Neolithic, at the time in question".

Thought Writes:

This statement is puzzling given the fact that Ofer Bar-Yosef's paper on the Mushabian Complex was one of Ehret's references in the Letter and the fact that Bar-Yosef was a contributor to the book “Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis”which Bellwood edited. Other than this strange comment he offers no evidence to challenge Bar-Yosef’s archaeological evidence.

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 05:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"The genetics papers quoted by Ehret et al. do not settle this matter. The Y chromosome evidence appears to signal complex two-way population movements with very uncertain chronologies."

Thought Writes:

Again, this is a puzzling statement given the fact that Peter Underhill who helped define the M35/215 lineage and its Mesolithic East African origin was another contributor to Bellwood’s book “Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis”. Bellwood offers no competing theory nor does he give us any detail as to what specific genes he believes came from Eurasia to Africa during this period.

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 05:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Bellwood Quote:

I have just published a detailed discussion of Afroasiatic prehistory from archaeological and linguistic perspectives, and the above points are made in more detail there.

Thought Writes:

It seems that the linguistic, genetic and archaeological contributors to Bellwood’s book “Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis” (Ehret, Underhill and Bar-Yosef) do not even agree with him. He presented no real detail for his position and seems to be simply trying to save face.
Can anyone say Cop-Out!

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 05:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/Publications/farming.htm


The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
PUBLICATIONS

Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis
edited by Peter Bellwood & Colin Renfrew (2003)

Linguistic diversity is one of the most puzzling and challenging features of humankind. Why are there some six thousand different languages spoken in the world today? Why are some, like Chinese or English, spoken by millions over vast territories, while others are restricted to just a few thousand speakers in a limited area? The farming/language dispersal hypothesis makes the radical and controversial proposal that the present-day distributions of many of the world's languages and language families can be traced back to the early developments and dispersals of farming from the several nuclear areas where animal and plant domestication emerged. For instance, the Indo-European and Austronesian language families may owe their current vast distributions to the spread of food plants and of farmers (speaking the relevant proto-languages) following the Neolithic revolutions which took place in the Near East and in Eastern Asia respectively, thousands of years ago.
In this challenging book, international experts in historical linguistics, prehistoric archaeology, molecular genetics and human ecology bring their specialisms to bear upon this intractable problem, using a range of interdisciplinary approaches. There are signs that a New Synthesis between these fields may now be emerging. This path-breaking volume opens new perspectives and indicates some of the directions which future research is likely to follow.
Editors
Peter Bellwood, School of Archaeology and Anthropology and Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.

Colin Renfrew, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3ER, UK.

Contents
Part I Introduction

Chapter 1 'The Emerging Synthesis': the Archaeogenetics of Farming/Language Dispersals and other Spread Zones
Colin Renfrew
Chapter 2 Farmers, Foragers, Languages, Genes: the Genesis of Agricultural Societies
Peter Bellwood
Part II Setting the Scene for the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis

Chapter 3 The Expansion Capacity of Early Agricultural Systems: a Comparative Perspective on the Spread of Agriculture
David R. Harris
Chapter 4 The Economies of Late Pre-farming and Farming Communities and their Relation to the Problem of Dispersals
Mark Nathan Cohen
Chapter 5 What Drives Linguistic Diversification and Language Spread?
Lyle Campbell
Chapter 6 Inference of Neolithic Population Histories using Y-chromosome Haplotypes
Peter A. Underhill
Chapter 7 Demic Diffusion as the Basic Process of Human Expansions
Luca Cavalli-Sforza
Chapter 8 The DNA Chronology of Prehistoric Human Dispersals
Peter Forster & Colin Renfrew
Chapter 9 What Molecules Can't Tell Us about the Spread of Languages and the Neolithic
Hans-Jürgen Bandelt, Vincent Macaulay & Martin Richards

Part III Regional Studies

A. Western Asia and North Africa

Chapter 10 The Natufian Culture and the Early Neolithic: Social and Economic Trends in Southwestern Asia
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Chapter 11 Archaeology and Linguistic Diversity in North Africa
Fekri A. Hassan
Chapter 12 The Prehistory of a Dispersal: the Proto-Afrasian (Afroasiatic) Farming Lexicon
Alexander Militarev
Chapter 13 Transitions to Farming and Pastoralism in North Africa
Graeme Barker
Chapter 14 Language Family Expansions: Broadening our Understandings of Cause from an African Perspective
Christopher Ehret
Chapter 15 Language and Farming Dispersals in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Particular Reference to the Bantu-speaking Peoples
David W. Phillipson

B. Asia and Oceania

Chapter 16 An Agricultural Perspective on Dravidian Historical Linguistics: Archaeological Crop Packages, Livestock and Dravidian Crop Vocabulary
Dorian Fuller
Chapter 17 The Genetics of Language and Farming Spread in India
Toomas Kivisild, Siiri Rootsi, Mait Metspalu, Ene Metspalu, Jüri Parik, Katrin Kaldma, Esien Usanga, Sarabjit Mastana, Surinder S. Papiha & Richard Villems
Chapter 18 Languages and Farming Dispersals: Austroasiatic Languages and Rice Cultivation
Charles Higham
Chapter 19 Tibeto-Burman Phylogeny and Prehistory: Languages, Material Culture and Genes
George van Driem
Chapter 20 The Austronesian Dispersal: Languages, Technologies and People
Andrew Pawley
Chapter 21 Island Southeast Asia: Spread or Friction Zone?
Victor Paz
Chapter 22 Polynesians: Devolved Taiwanese Rice Farmers or Wallacean Maritime Traders with Fishing, Foraging and Horticultural Skills?
Stephen Oppenheimer & Martin Richards
Chapter 23 Can the Hypothesis of Language/Agriculture Co-dispersal be Tested with Archaeogenetics?
Matthew Hurles
Chapter 24 Agriculture and Language Change in the Japanese Islands
Mark Hudson

C. Mesoamerica and the US Southwest

Chapter 25 Contextualizing Proto-languages, Homelands and Distant Genetic Relationship: Some Reflections on the Comparative Method from a Mesoamerican Perspective
Søren Wichmann
Chapter 26 Proto-Uto-Aztecan Cultivation and the Northern Devolution
Jane H. Hill
Chapter 27 The Spread of Maize Agriculture in the U.S. Southwest
R.G. Matson
Chapter 28 Conflict and Language Dispersal: Issues and a New World Example
Steven A. LeBlanc
D. Europe

Chapter 29 Issues of Scale and Symbiosis: Unpicking the Agricultural 'Package'
Martin Jones
Chapter 30 Demography and Dispersal of Early Farming Populations at the Mesolithic­Neolithic Transition: Linguistic and Genetic Implications
Marek Zvelebil
Chapter 31 Pioneer Farmers? The Neolithic Transition in Western Europe
Chris Scarre
Chapter 32 Farming Dispersal in Europe and the Spread of the Indo-European Language Family
Bernard Comrie
Chapter 33 DNA Variation in Europe: Estimating the Demographic Impact of Neolithic Dispersals
Guido Barbujani & Isabelle Dupanloup
Chapter 34 Admixture and the Demic Diffusion Model in Europe
Lounès Chikhi
Chapter 35 Complex Signals for Population Expansions in Europe and Beyond
Kristiina Tambets, Helle-Viivi Tolk, Toomas Kivisild, Ene Metspalu, Jüri Parik, Maere Reidla, Michael Voevoda, Larissa Damba, Marina Bermisheva, Elsa Khusnutdinova, Maria Golubenko, Vadim Stepanov, Valery Puzyrev, Esien Usanga, Pavao Rudan,Lars Beckmann & Richard Villems
Chapter 36 Analyzing Genetic Data in a Model-based Framework: Inferences about European Prehistory
Martin Richards, Vincent Macaulay & Hans-Jürgen Bandelt
Postscript Concluding Observations
Peter Bellwood & Colin Renfrew

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 11:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Bellwood Quote:

"The Egyptian Neolithic economy, however, was manifestly of Levant and not African origin."


Thought Posts:

The Prehistory of Egypt
Beatrix Midant-Reynes
Pg. 107

"It is evident that the high level of sedentism - full scale villages - that characterizes the Natufian version of the neolithic is alien to the Faiyum, where the strategy of land use seems instead to be still linked to a BROAD SPECTRUM form of SEASONAL exploitation. Indeed, although agriculture and domestication are attested, the fishing-hunting-gathering combination (reflected both in the toolkit and in the surviving remains of animal species) continued to be the dominant element in their way of life."

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Thought2
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posted 27 December 2004 11:37 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Origins Of Afroasiatic
Chrsitopher Ehret, S.O.Y. Keita, Paul Newman
Science
Letters Section
Vol 306
December 3, 2004

"A critical reading of genetic data analysis, specifically those of Y Chromosome phylogeography and TaqI 49a,f haplotypes, supports the hypothesis of populations moving FROM the Horn or Southeastern Sahara NORTHWARD to the Nile Valley, NORTHWEST AFRICA, the Levant, and Aegean. The geography of the M35/215 (or 215/M35) lineage, which is of Horn/East African origin, is largely concordant with the range of Afroasiatic languages. Underhill et al. state that this lineage was carried from Africa during the "Mesolithic". The distributions of the Afroasiatic branches and this lineage can best be explained by invoking movements that originated in Africa and occurred before the emergence of food production, as well as after."

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rasol
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posted 28 December 2004 09:16 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm trying to understand the structure of this debate. Are Chrsitopher Ehret and S.O.Y. Keita responding to something written prior by Bellwood or vice versa?

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Thought2
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posted 28 December 2004 10:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
{I'm trying to understand the structure of this debate. Are Chrsitopher Ehret and S.O.Y. Keita responding to something written prior by Bellwood or vice versa?}

Thought Writes:

I apologize if I have been unclear. April 25, 2003 Jared Diamond and Peter Bellwood wrote a Review titled "Farmers and their languages: the first expansions" in which they asserted that Afro-Asiatic was brought to Africa from the Levant via demic diffusion. December 3, 2004 Ehret, Keita and Newman replied with a letter to the editor and Bellwood was allowed to respond to this letter with his own letter on the same date. The excerpts I have provided from Ehret et al and Bellwood are from these letters dated December 3, 2004.

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rasol
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posted 28 December 2004 10:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I understand now. Thanks.

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supercar
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posted 28 December 2004 11:30 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for supercar     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Very imformative thread!

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Thought2
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posted 28 December 2004 03:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Bellwood Quote:

"My assumption is that the spread of Afroasiatic occured as a result of actual human movement, not language diffusion alone."

"My working assumption, therefore, is that early Afroasiatic languages spread from the Levant into Africa between 7,000 and 12,000 years ago, probably in more than one movement."

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Thought2
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posted 28 December 2004 03:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Bellwood Quote:

"My assumption is that the spread of Afroasiatic occured as a result of actual human movement, not language diffusion alone."

"My working assumption, therefore, is that early Afroasiatic languages spread from the Levant into Africa between 7,000 and 12,000 years ago, probably in more than one movement."


Thought Writes:

Bellwoods basic assumption is primarily based upon the linguistic reconstructions of Militarev who seems to be the lone linguistic proponent of this out-dated concept (Hamitic Myth).

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Thought2
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posted 28 December 2004 03:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

Bellwoods basic assumption is primarily based upon the linguistic reconstructions of Militarev who seems to be the lone linguistic proponent of this out-dated concept (Hamitic Myth).



Ehret et al Quote:

"In resurrecting this generally abandoned view, the authors misrepresent the views of the late I.M. Diakonoff, rely on linguistic reconstructions inapplicable to their claims (the work of Militarev), and fail to engage the five decades of Afroasiatic scholarship that rebutted this idea in the first place. This extensive, well-grounded linguistic research places the Afroasiatic homeland in the southeastern Sahara or adjacent Horn of Africa and, when all of Afroasiatic's branches are included, strongly indicates a pre-food-producing proto-Afroasiatic economy."

"Diamond and Bellwood adopt Militarev's solitary counterclaim of proto-Afroasiatic cultivation. However, not one of Militarev's proposed 32 agricultural roots can be considered diagnostic of cultivation. Fifteen are reconstructed as names of plants or loose categories of plants. Such evidence may reveal plants known to early Afroasiatic speakers, but it does not indicate whether they were cultivated or wild. Militarev's remaining roots are each semantically mixed, i.e., they have food-production-related meanings in some languages, but in other languages have meanings applicable to foraging or equally applicable to foraging or cultivating."

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rasol
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posted 28 December 2004 03:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:

Thought Writes:
Bellwoods basic assumption is primarily based upon the linguistic reconstructions of Militarev who seems to be the lone linguistic proponent of this out-dated concept (Hamitic Myth).
How does Militarev account for the absense of any branch of Afrasan other than semetic in Eurasia. Esp. given that mdw ntr itself is not semetic?

Also, there are some more radical views of the Afrasan phylum including to the effect that it does not actaully exist. Theophile Obenga argues that semetic is actually a separate language family, which is interesting as it is semetic that the Nostrasists generally use to make their connection between Indo-European and Afrasan.
http://www.ankhonline.com/langue1.htm

[This message has been edited by rasol (edited 28 December 2004).]

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posted 28 December 2004 03:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Bellwood Quote:

"My assumption is that the spread of Afroasiatic occurred as a result of actual human movement, not language diffusion alone."

"My working assumption, therefore, is that early Afroasiatic languages spread from the Levant into Africa between 7,000 and 12,000 years ago, probably in more than one movement."


Thought Writes:

Bellwood seems to be using the diffusion of Near Eastern domesticated plants and animals as archaeological evidence for the diffusion of Afro-Asiatic languages. Based upon this assumption, under Bellwood's paradigm Afroasiatic could not have spread into Africa prior to the sixth millennium when Near Eastern domesticated plants and animals entered the region. Hence the importance of Ehret et al’s rebuttal on archaeological grounds:

Ehret et al Quote‘s:

"Furthermore, the archaeology of northern Africa does not support demic diffusion of farming from the Near East. The evidence presented by Wetterstrom indicates that early African farmers in the Fayum initially INCORPORATED Near Eastern domesticates INTO an INDIGENOUS foraging strategy, and only OVER TIME developed a dependence on horticulture. This is inconsistent with in-migrating farming settlers, who would have brought a more ABRUPT change in subsistence strategy."

"The same archaeological pattern occurs west of Egypt, where domestic animals and, later, grains were GRADUALLY adopted after 8000 yr B.P. into the established pre-agricultural Capsian culture, present across the northern Sahara since 10,000 yr B.P. From this continuity, it has been argued that the pre-food-production Capsian peoples spoke languages ancestral to the Berber and/or Chadic branches of Afroasiatic, placing the proto-Afroasiatic period distinctly before 10,000 yr B.P."

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alTakruri
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posted 28 December 2004 07:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for alTakruri     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
dd

[This message has been edited by alTakruri (edited 28 December 2004).]

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alTakruri
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posted 28 December 2004 07:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for alTakruri     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

quote:
Originally posted by rasol:
[QUOTE]
Thought Writes:
Bellwoods basic assumption is primarily based upon the linguistic reconstructions of Militarev who seems to be the lone linguistic proponent of this out-dated concept (Hamitic Myth).
How does Militarev account for the absense of any branch of Afrasan other than semetic in Eurasia. Esp. given that mdw ntr itself is not semetic?

Also, there are some more radical views of the Afrasan phylum including to the effect that it does not actaully exist. Theophile Obenga argues that semetic is actually a separate language family, which is interesting as it is semetic that the Nostrasists generally use to make their connection between Indo-European and Afrasan.
http://www.ankhonline.com/langue1.htm

[This message has been edited by rasol (edited 28 December 2004).][/QUOTE]


Taking a cue from the Homburger and Delafosse, Obenga has
a clear break from classifications based on Greenberg. Obenga's
three unrelated language phyla native to geographical Africa are


  1. négro-égyptien
  2. berbère
  3. khoisan


Négro-égyptienne further breaks down into

  1. négro-africain a branch with many sub-phyla each having multiple families
    a - couchitique
    b - tchadique
    c - nilo-saharien
    d - nigéro-kordofanien
  2. égyptien a branch with a single sub-phylum of two families

Obenga recognizes that Semitic languages are spoken in Africa but
doesn't classify them as native to the geographical continent of
Africa dubbing them


  • sémitique de l'Afrique

In essence, Obenga strips Semitic and Tamazight from Afrasan,
replaces them with Nilo Saharan and Niger Kordofanian, and
calls the new resulting phyla Black-Egyptian.

[This message has been edited by alTakruri (edited 28 December 2004).]

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Thought2
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posted 28 December 2004 09:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ehret Et al. Quote:

“A careful reading of Diakonff shows his continuing adherence to his long-held position of an exclusively Africa origin for the family. He explicitly describes proto-Afroasiatic vocabulary as consistent with non-food-producing vocabulary and links it to pre--Neolithic cultures in the Levant and in Africa south of Egypt, noting the latter to be older. Diakonff does revise his location for the Common Semitic homeland, moving it from entirely within northeast Africa to areas straddling the Nile Delta and Sinai, but continues to place the origins of the five other branches of the family wholly in Africa. One interpretation of the archaeological data supports a pre-food-producing population movement from Africa into the Levant, consistent with the linguistic arguments for a pre-Neolithic migration of pre-proto-Semitic speakers out of Africa via Sinai.”

{How does Militarev account for the absense of any branch of Afrasan other than semetic in Eurasia.}

Thought Writes:

Not to be flippant, but that does not negate the possibility that this language originated in the Levant. Of course placing the Levant in Eurasia, especially during the period in question, could be challenged on geological grounds. The stronger argument for an African origin to Afro-Asiatic is the multi-disciplinary (archaeology, genetics, geology, skeletal analysis, etc.) one incorporating the fact that many of the Non-Semitic Afroasiatic languages have internal phylogenies with as much depth as Semitic. The depth of the Semitic phylogeny is in line with Diakonff’s position for a Delta/Sinai (hence Mushabian) origin of Afroasiatic and is consistent with the archaeological and genetic data that indicate out migration by Mushabian Africans (pre-proto-Semetic speakers?) during the Mesolithic period.

{Also, there are some more radical views of the Afrasan phylum including to the effect that it does not actaully exist. Theophile Obenga argues that semetic is actually a separate language family, which is interesting as it is semetic that the Nostrasists generally use to make their connection between Indo-European and Afrasan.}

Thought Writes:

Radical indeed. Genetic data clearly indicate a common origin for Semitic and Amazigh speakers deriving from Mesolithic East Africa.

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posted 28 December 2004 09:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
The depth of the Semitic phylogeny is in line with Diakonff’s position for a Delta/Sinai (hence Mushabian) origin of Afroasiatic and is consistent with the archaeological and genetic data that indicate out migration by Mushabian Africans (pre-proto-Semetic speakers?) during the Mesolithic period.

Pardon me, that should have read:

"The depth of the Semitic phylogeny is in line with Diakonff’s position for a Delta/Sinai (hence Mushabian) origin of the pre-proto-Semitic branch of Afroasiatic and is consistent with the archaeological and genetic data that indicate out migration by Mushabian Africans (pre-proto-Semetic speakers?) during the Mesolithic period."

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rasol
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posted 28 December 2004 09:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Pardon me, that should have read:

"The depth of the Semitic phylogeny is in line with Diakonff’s position for a Delta/Sinai (hence Mushabian) origin of the pre-proto-Semitic branch of Afroasiatic and is consistent with the archaeological and genetic data that indicate out migration by Mushabian Africans (pre-proto-Semetic speakers?) during the Mesolithic period."


However to postulate a Eurasian origin for the Afrasan language phylum, you would need semetic to be the root or base of the entire langauge family no?

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posted 28 December 2004 09:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by rasol:
However to postulate a Eurasian origin for the Afrasan language phylum, you would need semetic to be the root or base of the entire langauge family no?

Thought Writes:

This is correct, but Diakonff's position is not a Eurasian origin for Afro-Asiatic. Diakonff's position seems to be (based upon Ehret's interpretation) that pre-proto-Semitic/proto-Afro-Asiatic entered the Levant before a more generalized language diversification.

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posted 28 December 2004 09:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
If Amazigh has an internal phylogeny that dates back to at least 8,000 B.C. and Bellwood’s position argues a diffusion of Near Eastern domesticated plants and animals as archaeological evidence for the diffusion of Afro-Asiatic languages circa 6,000 B.C. his position is shallow based upon the multi-disciplinary approach. The same argument can be made on the basis of Cushitic, Chadic and Omotic as well.

Ehret et al. Quote:

“From this continuity, it has been argued that the pre-food-production Capsian peoples spoke languages ancestral to the Berber and/or Chadic branches of Afroasiatic, placing the proto-Afroasiatic period distinctly before 10,000 yr B.P."

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alTakruri
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posted 29 December 2004 12:28 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for alTakruri     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Does the following table on Afrasan, presented for corrections and
insights, still hold true or is it outdated?

Prime locations, language branches and probable date of final split:

Horn & Upper Nile___ - Kushitic__ - 8th millenium BCE

Lower Nile Valley___ - Egyptian__ - before7th millenium BCE

SW Ethiopia_______ - Omotic___ - 7th millenium BCE

Lake Tschad Regia__ - Chadic___ - 7th millenium BCE

Africa Geologica
(i.e. Arabia/E Med__ - Semitic___ - 6th or 5th millenium BCE
/Mesopotamia)

North Africa_______ - Tamazight_ - 6th or 5th millenium BCE


.

[This message has been edited by alTakruri (edited 29 December 2004).]

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ausar
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posted 29 December 2004 03:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for ausar     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Here is the complete article on the formation of Afro-asiatic:

http://www.zoo.ufl.edu/courses/pcb4044/2004Fall/Fire(Science).pdf

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posted 29 December 2004 09:13 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by ausar:

Here is the complete article on the formation of Afro-asiatic:

http://www.zoo.ufl.edu/courses/pcb4044/2004Fall/Fire(Science).pdf


Much thanks. This is one of the better threads on egyptsearch.com.

I was wondering about this from Ehret et. al
Furthermore there is evidence that cattle domestication occured independantly in the early Holocene Eastern Sahara, earlier than in the 'Near East'.

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posted 29 December 2004 01:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by rasol:
I was wondering about this from Ehret et. al
Furthermore there is evidence that cattle domestication occured independantly in the early Holocene Eastern Sahara, earlier than in the 'Near East'.

Thought Writes:

Linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence indicates that populations in the Western Desert domesticated Cattle early on.

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posted 29 December 2004 01:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

Linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence indicates that populations in the Western Desert domesticated Cattle early on.


Yes.....wondering how Bellwood 'fits in' this data with his hypothesis; 'the manifestly levantine' nature of the Km.t economy. Ehret did mention the independant African domestication of cattle, but Bellwood's response is inadequete to this (and other) point(s).

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posted 29 December 2004 02:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by rasol:
Yes.....wondering how Bellwood 'fits in' this data with his hypothesis; 'the manifestly levantine' nature of the Km.t economy. Ehret did mention the independant African domestication of cattle, but Bellwood's response is inadequete to this (and other) point(s).

Thought Writes:

I have posed several questions to Dr. Bellwod over he past few days. He has been open enough to respond in kind. Out of respect for the confidential nature of our conversations I will not re-post his replies, but I will offer **my interpretation** of his position based upon these replies.

1) His position is not set in stone, however he favors the Levantine origin of Afro-Asiatic based upon archaeological data.

2) he does not except expansion dates for genetics, but does except mutation dates based upon assumptions of molecular clocks.

3) He wants to contact O. Bar-Yosef directly to get further clarification on the Mushabian.

4) He does not believe that language phylum’s differentiate at a constant rate, hence implying that branches of Afro-Asiatic may be internally as complex as other languages, yet have different phylogenies chronologically.

5) He believes the skeletal data for "Negroid" Natufians is old and may refelct bias.

6) He believes Afro-Asiatic entered Africa with Near Eastern domestic animals and plants after 6,000 B.C., hence Chadic Cushitic, Berber etc all post date 6,000 B.C.

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posted 29 December 2004 02:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:


6) He believes Afro-Asiatic entered Africa with Near Eastern domestic animals and plants after 6,000 B.C.


Thought Writes:

I think this is the most important point. Badarian crania clearly cluster with Horn of Africa populations. Naqada remains had distal limb segments elongated in the fashion of tropical Africans. All this implies that Upper Egyptians were of an indigenous tropical African background. As my quote from David Wengrow demonstrates, the horticulture based early Neolithic in Lower Egypt was less complex than the semi-nomadic cattle herding economy of the Badarians. This is inconsistent with in-migrating Eurasian Afro-Asiatic speakers colonizing Upper Egyptians. In fact the general trend in NE Africa is Upper Egyptians "civilizing" Lower Egyptians. In addition, as Ehret et al. point out archaeological data from Lower Egypt indicate a GRADUAL assimilation of Near Eastern domesticates into the indigenous foraging economy. This to is inconsistent with a demic diffusion model which implies colonization.

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posted 29 December 2004 03:00 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

2) he does not except expansion dates for genetics, but does except mutation dates based upon assumptions of molecular clocks.


Thought Writes:

I mentioned the fact that the mutation date for E-M78 alpha is roughly 8 KY and is located in the Balkins and the mutation date for E-M78 Delta is 14.7 KY and is rooted in East Africa. E-M78 alpha is derived from E-M78 Delta, implying that E-M78 spread from East Africa to Europe sometime between 14.7 KY and 8 KY.

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posted 29 December 2004 03:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

3) He wants to contact O. Bar-Yosef directly to get further clarification on the Mushabian.


Thought Writes:

I found it a bit odd Dr. Bellwood knows Dr. Bar-Yosef personally, yet was unfamiliar with his conclusions about out-of-Africa migrations during the mesolithic period (i.e. Mushabian)?

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posted 29 December 2004 03:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

4) He does not believe that language phylum’s differentiate at a constant rate, hence implying that branches of Afro-Asiatic may be internally as complex as other languages, yet have different phylogenies chronologically.


Thought Writes:

The implication is that he believes the dating systems of language families is flawed.

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rasol
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posted 29 December 2004 03:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
I mentioned the fact that the mutation date for E-M78 alpha is roughly 8 KY and is located in the Balkins and the mutation date for E-M78 Delta is 14.7 KY and is rooted in East Africa. E-M78 alpha is derived from E-M78 Delta, implying that E-M78 spread from East Africa to Europe sometime between 14.7 KY and 8 KY.

And Bellwood needs this E-M78 bearing population(?) to step across into the Levantine circa 8 ky, and then back-migrate into Africa, begging the question 'why bother', or implying that his hypothesis creates an artificial delimma rather than solving an actual problem?

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posted 29 December 2004 03:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

5) He believes the skeletal data for "Negroid" Natufians is old and may refelct bias.


Thought Writes:

The interesting thing about Natufian remains is that they have broader, flatter noses and are more prognathic than the preceeding Ohalo populations. Given the fact that the Levant was MORE arid during the LGM than before it it is improbable that the indigenous Ohalo populations evolved broader, flatter noses in a more arid environment. The implication, again is migration from Africa!

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rasol
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posted 29 December 2004 03:20 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for rasol     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Thought2:
Thought Writes:

4) He does not believe that language phylum’s differentiate at a constant rate, hence implying that branches of Afro-Asiatic may be internally as complex as other languages, yet have different phylogenies chronologically.


quote:
Thought Writes:

The implication is that he believes the dating systems of language families is flawed.


Well, it would have to be very badly flawed. Otherwise his hypothesis is a non-starter. He needs proto-semitic to be older, proto-afrasan to be younger, or the entire phylum reconstructed, but this would clearly be contrived so as to make his hypothesis less unreasonable, rather than actually explaining any existing legitimate riddle. It sounds as if he is making a mystery instead of resolving one.

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posted 29 December 2004 03:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Thought2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by rasol:
It sounds as if he is making a mystery instead of resolving one.

Thought Writes:

: )

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