Shevoroshkin V. (ed.) Proto-languages and proto-cultures

Materials from the first International Interdisciplinary symposium on language and prehistory, Ann Arbor, 8 - 12 November, 1988. — Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1990. — 205 p. — (Bochum publications in evolutionary cultural semiotics; vol. 25). — ISBN 3-88339-789-Х.I am writing this at a time when work on deep reconstruction of proto-languages (or, rather, proto-proto-languages) is rapidly progressing both in Russia and Czechoslovakia. As for the U.S., a substantial amount of broad comparisons of languages is produced here, which, unfortunately, is not always precise. Linguists who work in deep reconstruction benefit from American research since they can easily separate plausible data from implausible. But lack of precision contributes to a growing skepticism among most other linguists; this influences negatively both administrative bodies (which provide research support) and potential young scholars. I see some improvement in recent long range comparisons but not much. It is a pity that almost no reconstructions of languages — parents of language families is being made in America (with the exception of Hokan reconstruction by T. Kaufman from Pittsburgh; the reconstruction of Uto-Aztecan does not progress any more).
As for the broad comparisons in the East, the most promising seem to be those made by Sergei Starostin, Sergei Nikolaev, Oleg Mudrak, Ilya Peiros and Vaclav Blažek; but I would like to mention in passing that the comparison of Almosan-Keresiouan with Gilyak and Chukchi-Kamchatkan by Mudrak and Nikolaev seems to be weak in many points. I also find some weak points in the Nostratic-SinoCausasian-Austronesian-MonKhmer comparisons by Peiros. A short comparative list of Nostratic, Sino-Caucasian and Amerind compiled by Starostin for a popular article seems very precise; Starostin used Ruhlen's comparison between Nostratic and Amerind (published in our first collection, Reconstructing Languages and Cultures. Bochum 1989; the above mentioned comparison by Mudrak and Nikolaev, as well as Starostin's Nostratic-SinoCaucasian comparison are present in our second collection: Explorations in Language Macrofamilies, ibid.).List of Participants.
V. Shevoroshkin. Introduction.
Language and culture.
I. Peiros. Ancient Eastern and Southeastern Asia: Comparative-Historical Data and their Interpretations.
K. Menges. Altaic and East Nostratic.
A. Militarёv. Afrasian Cultural Terms.
Sino-Caucasian languages.
J. Bengtson. Notes on the Sino-Caucasian Affinity of Sumerian.
V. Orёl, S. Starostin. Etruscan as an East Caucasian Language.
Nostratic / Eurasiatic languages.
S. Tyler. Summary of Noun and Verb Inflectional Correspondences In Proto-Dravidian and Proto-Uralian.
J. Greenberg. The Prehistory of the Indo-European Vowel System in Comparative and Typological Perspective.
Reconstructions.
V. Illich-Svitych. [Nostratic Reconstructions] translated and arranged by M. Kaiser.
V. Dybo. Comparative-Phonetic Tables for Nostratic Reconstructions.
M. Kaiser. Semantic Index to Nostratic Reconstructions.