Nostratic languages

The concept of the Nostratic languages is best understood in the context of the discovery, methods of investigation, and application of the Indo-European family of languages. When Sir William Jones first suggested the Indo-European hypothesis, he backed up his idea with a systematic examination of what might be termed "phono-semantic sets" -- words which, in different languages, had both similar sounds and meanings. Jones essentially argued that there were too many of these sets for their existence to be mere coincidence, laying particular e ...

See also:

Nostratic languages, Nostratic languages - History: Indo-European to Nostratic, Nostratic languages - Criticism, Nostratic languages - Example of Nostratic Technique

Read more here: » Nostratic languages: Encyclopedia II - Nostratic languages - History: Indo-European to Nostratic

Uralo-Siberian is a hypothetical language family consisting of the following language families: Uralic Yukaghir Chukotko-Kamchatkan Eskimo-Aleut Uralo-Siberian languages - History. Structural similarities between Uralic and Eskimo-Aleut languages were observed early. In 1746, the Danish theologian Marcus Wöldike compared Greenlandic to Hungarian. In 1818, Rasmus Rask considered Greenlandic to be related to the Uralic languages, and presented a list of lexical ...

Including:

• Uralo-Siberian languages - History
• Uralo-Siberian languages - Evidence
• Uralo-Siberian languages - Phonology
• Uralo-Siberian languages - Morphology
• Uralo-Siberian languages - Lexicon
• Uralo-Siberian languages - Sources

Read more here: » Uralo-Siberian languages: Encyclopedia - Uralo-Siberian languages

Joseph Greenberg - Language typology. Greenberg's fame rests in part on his seminal contributions to synchronic linguistics and the quest to identify linguistic universals. In the late 1950's, Greenberg began to examine corpora of languages covering a wide geographic and genetic distribution. He located a number of interesting potential universals, as well as many strong cross-linguistic tendencies. In particular, Greenberg invented the notion of "implicational universal", which takes the form "if a langua ...

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Joseph Greenberg, Joseph Greenberg - Contributions to linguistics, Joseph Greenberg - Language typology, Joseph Greenberg - African languages, Joseph Greenberg - Indo-Pacific languages, Joseph Greenberg - Languages of the Americas, Joseph Greenberg - Eurasiatic Languages, Joseph Greenberg - Greenberg's method of mass comparison

Read more here: » Joseph Greenberg: Encyclopedia II - Joseph Greenberg - Contributions to linguistics

Uralo-Siberian languages - Phonology. The consonant inventories of the reconstructed protolanguages of the four Uralo-Siberian families are very similar to each other. A common feature is that there are only voiceless and no voiced stops, while there is a set of voiced (but no voiceless) non-sibilant fricatives with the same places of articulation (labial, dental, palatal and velar; in Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut, also uvular). There are also nasals in the same places of articulation. In addition, there are three sibilants, and liquids and semivowels. See also:

Uralo-Siberian languages, Uralo-Siberian languages - History, Uralo-Siberian languages - Evidence, Uralo-Siberian languages - Phonology, Uralo-Siberian languages - Morphology, Uralo-Siberian languages - Lexicon, Uralo-Siberian languages - Sources

Read more here: » Uralo-Siberian languages: Encyclopedia II - Uralo-Siberian languages - Evidence

An example of the techniques used by supporters of Nostratic is given by a passage from 'The Nostratic Macrofamily, a Study in Distant Linguistic Relationship', by Allan R. Bomhard and John C. Kerns. New York, Mouton de Gruyter, 1994. Page 219: Proto-Nostratic *bar-/*ber- 'seed, grain': Proto-Indo-European *bhars- 'grain': Latin far 'spelt, grain'; Old Icelandic barr 'barley'; Old English bere 'barley'; Old Church Slavonic brasheno 'food'. Pokorny 1959:111 ...

See also:

Nostratic languages, Nostratic languages - History: Indo-European to Nostratic, Nostratic languages - Criticism, Nostratic languages - Example of Nostratic Technique

Read more here: » Nostratic languages: Encyclopedia II - Nostratic languages - Example of Nostratic Technique

Almost all modern linguists are, at best, highly skeptical of the facts put forward to show that the language families under the Nostratic umbrella are, in fact, related. The main criticism of Nostratic is that the methodology used leads people to see patterns that are the result of coincidence. In reconstructing Nostratic, supporters do not use the techniques that linguists have established to prevent false positives, such as ...

See also:

Nostratic languages, Nostratic languages - History: Indo-European to Nostratic, Nostratic languages - Criticism, Nostratic languages - Example of Nostratic Technique

Read more here: » Nostratic languages: Encyclopedia II - Nostratic languages - Criticism