Militarev A. Yu. Proto-language reconstruction and glottochronology and what the Neolithic Near Eastern man thought of time and soul
Independent researcher
921 Driven St. #204, Peekskill NY 10566 USA [amilitarev@gmail.com]
Abstract. The article is devoted to Swadesh’s lexicostatistics and glottochronology as modified by S. A. Starostin, the author’s application of these methods to Semitic and Afrasian (Afroasiatic) basic vocabulary, and the coordination of lexical reconstruction data and the resulting dating of language divisions with archaeological and genetic data and chronologies. The author presents the genealogical trees of the Afrasian and separately Semitic languages obtained by him with the help of the Starling application developed by S. A. Starostin in their comparison with archaeological periods and dates, as well as examples of the possibilities of etymology and reconstructed proto-linguistic lexicon for reconstructing elements of intellectual culture and ideas (in this case, of the Neolithic man in the Near East) that are not accessible by other sciences and methods, including such debatable in and relevant for modern science and philosophy as about the nature and direction of time and about the soul as the bearer of life, individual consciousness and “self” (following from the meanings of the descendants of this reconstructed proto-language term in certain actually attested living Semitic and other Afroasiatic languages and in ancient written Semitic and Egyptian).
Keywords: comparative-historical linguistics, reconstruction, proto-language, etymology, lexicostatistics, glottochronology, archaeology, genetics.
Received 30.04.2025, accepted 16.05.2025
DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2025-1-5-37
For citation: Militarev A. Yu. Proto-language reconstruction and glottochronology and what the Neolithic Near Eastern man thought of time and soul (in Russ.). Prehistoric Archaeology. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 2025 (1), 5–37, DOI: 10.31600/2658-3925-2025-1-5-37
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