What is Nostratic?
Q: What is Nostratic?
A: Nostratic is a hypothetical language family which includes many of the present-day language families of Eurasia.
Q: Who proposed the idea of Nostratic?
A: The idea was expanded in the 1960s by Soviet linguists, called the "Moscovite school" by Bomhard. It has received renewed attention in English-speaking academia since the 1990s.
Q: What languages are thought to be descendants of Nostratic?
A: These include the Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic and Kartvelian languages. The Afroasiatic languages, native to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Near East, as well as the Dravidian languages of the Indian subcontinent, are usually included as well.
Q: Is there acceptance amongst linguists for this hypothesis?
A: The hypothesis is controversial and has varying degrees of acceptance amongst linguists worldwide. Some linguists are unsure.
Q: When would Proto-Nostratic have been spoken?
A: The hypothetical ancestral language of the Nostratic family is called Proto-Nostratic. It would have been spoken between 15,000 and 12,000 BC in the Epipalaeolithic period near the end of last glacial period.
Q: What does "Nostrates" mean?
A: The name "Nostratic" is derived from Latin nostrates meaning "us", or fellow countrymen.
