bones and flesh

[George Thompson]

I can't speak for others on this list, but I would welcome a good,
well-informed discussion of the early relations between Munda, Dravidian, and
Indo-Aryan languages.

I am also prepared to entertain Paul Kekai Manansala's ideas, whatever they
may be, about these language families.  Unfortunately, he has demonstrated on
this list, over and over again, that he has no command of basic methods in
linguistics.  And now he proudly aligns himself with Mark Hubey, who likewise
has repeatedly demonstrated, on this list and elsewhere, a foolish disregard
for basic methodology, a methodology which, as Michael Witzel has argued, has
itself repeatedly demonstrated its own reliability over the course of the
last 100 and more years..

A scholar who is so quick to dismiss the old masters [for example, Saussure
on the 'coefficient sonantique'] in order to embrace a clearly incompetent
pseudo-linguist like Hubey, has earned little credibility, as far as I can
see.  He will have to re-gain credibility by displaying basic control over
both the relevant languages and basic methodology.

Paul Kekai Manansala has not done this. He is invited to do so now.

George Thompson