"Linguistic Archaeology: An Introduction"

[bouteillebleu]

I have a soft spot for crackpot theories. And Edo Nyland's theory of why all languages evolved from Basque, a language which is commonly taken to be an isolate among languages spoken in Europe, is a great example of such

Comments

[bouteillebleu]

Well, he makes the following claims:

* The original language spoken across Africa and Europe was Saharan, whose closest remaining descendant is Basque;
* Proto-Indo-European is a myth, all the languages that apparently are similar enough that they might have a common ancestral language were actually manufactured, both syntax and vocabulary, by nasty god-worshipping male-supremacist priests who were attempting to fool everyone into believing that Saharan never existed;
* The Saharan speakers were goddess-worshipping female-revering equal-opportunities lovely fluffy people;
* Mass comparison is totally a useful linguistic tool and not just a way to find vast amounts of spurious cognates.

The link to the page about mass comparison there is probably a good explanation of why his "these languages are related" pages are bullshit. As for the rest... yes, you're pretty much right there. The reason people haven't researched the things he's annoyed about them not researching - the reason that "these things are apparent only to the layman", as he says on one page - is because they're rubbish.

[reichsfreiherr]

The Saharan speakers were goddess-worshipping female-revering equal-opportunities lovely fluffy people

That reminds me of this comment in regards to the Mosuo. In this case it seems like the assertion of male = bad: female = good might easily be someone trying to come up with an ‘exotic’ alternative culture in sharp contrast to many of the systems today but with an extra bit of polarisation thrown in to spice things up a bit. It also plays into that myth that while men are aggressive and individualistic, women will automatically bond together and form support communities so I’d wonder if this ‘specialist’ was simply extrapolating from that stereotype. Plus I’m always just that little bit suspicious about ‘academic’ websites where there isn’t any information about the researcher himself.