Borean languages
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Borean is a highly controversial proposed language family, suggested by Sergei Starostin, that would include most languages of Eurasia, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and some or all of the Americas. It is named after the Northern Hemisphere (Boreal). This is a smaller proposal than Proto-World, but larger than Nostratic or Eurasiatic. Most notably, Borean would include Sino-Caucasian and therefore the Chinese language, and Austric which encompasses the other languages of South China and Southeast Asia, neither of which have been included in any of the Nostratic or Eurasiatic proposals. However, the proposal is rejected by nearly all mainstream historical linguists.
Nikita Krugly takes credit for suggesting the name in 2000, while Georgiy Starostin expresses the reservation that the name would imply a prejudgement that the Eurasian macrofamilies Nostratic, Sino-Caucasian, Afroasiatic and Austric are more closely related to each other than to the African families Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo. [1]
[edit] External links
- Borean tree diagram
- Description of database of suggested Borean etymologies
- Database of long-range etymologies
- Afrasian and Its Closest Relatives: the Borean Hypothesis
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