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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Language, Culture or Both? was Nostratic

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Language, Culture or Both? was Nostratic
  • Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:54:25 +0100

On 19/04/2007 17:11, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
On 4/19/07, Peter Kirk wrote:

For more on Birale or Ongota, see
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bxe. The population in
2000 was reported as 19. The language is listed at
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=89997 as an unclassified
branch of Afro-Asiatic, alongside Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian,
Omotic and Semitic.

Be careful of the classifications on ethnologue though:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/4788
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/4786

Fair enough, but these reservations apply only to dead languages, not to (just) living ones like Birale/Ongota. You can read the 2001 survey report on Birale at http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/SILESR2002-066.pdf, including a 320 item word list collected in 1994. But no reference is given for the linguistic classification.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





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