A comprehensive summary of the Nostratic Hypothesis as of 2011, providing (1) the basis for the reconstruction of Proto-Nostratic as presented by Allan Bomhard, Vladislav M. Illič-Svityč, Aharon B. Dolgopolsky, Joseph H. Greenberg, and others; (2) a comparative vocabulary of Proto-Indo-European stems with proposed Nostratic etymologies and cognates from other branches of Nostratic; (3) a systematic evaluation of the material contained in Aharon Dolgopolsky¿s Nostratic Dictionary.

The “Nostratic” hypothesis — positing a common linguistic ancestor for a wide range of language families including Indo-European, Uralic, and Afro-Asiatic — has produced one of the most enduring and often intense controversies in linguistics. Overwhelmingly, though, both supporters of the hypothesis and those who reject it have not dealt directly with one another’s arguments. This volume brings together selected representatives of both sides, as well as a number of agnostic historical linguists, with the aim of examining the evidence for this particular hypothesis in the context of distant genetic relationships generally. The volume contains discussion of variants of the Nostratic hypothesis (A. Bomhard; J. Greenberg; A. Manaster-Ramer, K. Baertsch, K. Adams, & P. Michalove), the mathematics of chance in determining the relationships posited for Nostratic (R. Oswalt; D. Ringe), and the evidence from particular branches posited in Nostratic (L. Campbell; C. Hodge; A. Vovin), with responses and additional discussion by E. Hamp, B. Vine, W. Baxter and B. Comrie.

Vitalij Viktorovich Shevoroshkin: Selected PublicationsRaimo Anttila: Beating a Goddess out of the Bush?Vaclav Blazek: Indo European 'Seven?Claude Pierre Boisson: The Phonotactics of SumerianJ. C. Catford: The Myth of the Primordial ClickMadhav M. Deshpande: Panini and the Distinctive FeaturesJoseph H. Greenberg: Does Altaic Exist?Eric P. Hamp: A Far Out EquationIren Hegedis: On Grammaticalization in NostraticPramila Hemrajani: Three KissesPeter Edwin Hook: Relative Clauses in Eastern ShinaVyacheslav Vs. Ivanov: Luwian Collective and Non Collective Neutral Nouns in ?arBrian D. Joseph: Macrorelationships and Microrelationships and their RelationshipMark Kaiser: Rigor or Vigor?Whither Distant Linguistic Comparison?Leonid Kulikov: Vedic mriyate and other pseudo passives?Notes on an Accent ShiftAlexis Manaster Ramer: The Polygenesis of Western Yiddish?and the Monogenesis of YiddishKarl Heinrich Menges: Etymological Problems with Words for 'Blood? in Nostratic and Beyond.Peter A. Michalove: Altaic Evidence for Clusters in NostraticVladimir Orel: New Albanian Etymologies (Balkan Etymologies 116 145)Ilya Peiros: Macro Families?Can a Mistake Be Detected?Richard A. Rhodes: On Pronominal SystemsMerritt Ruhlen: Proto Amerind *KAPA 'Finger, Hand? and Its Origin in the Old WorldSergei A. Starostin: On the ?Consonant Splits? in JapaneseAlexander Vovin: Some Japanese Etymologies.

Recent developments in aDNA has reshaped our understanding of later European prehistory, and at the same time also opened up for more fruitful collaborations between archaeologists and historical linguists. Two revolutionary genetic studies, published independently in Nature, 2015, showed that prehistoric Europe underwent two successive waves of migration, one from Anatolia consistent with the introduction of agriculture, and a later influx from the Pontic-Caspian steppes which without any reasonable doubt pinpoints the archaeological Yamnaya complex as the cradle of (Core-)Indo-European languages. Now, for the first time, when the preliminaries are clear, it is possible for the fields of genetics, archaeology and historical linguistics to cooperate in a constructive fashion to refine our knowledge of the Indo-European homeland, migrations, society and language. For the historical-comparative linguists, this opens up a wealth of exciting perspectives and new working fields in the intersections between linguistics and neighbouring disciplines, for the archaeologists and geneticists, on the other hand, the linguistic contributions help to endow the material findings with a voice from the past. The present selection of papers illustrate the importance of an open interdisciplinary discussion which will gradually help us in our quest of Tracing the Indo-Europeans.

This volume of essays examines the claim that a linguistic macrofamily can be identified which includes not only the Indo-European and Afroasiatic language families but also the Kartvelian, Uralic, Altaic and Dravidian families. The Nostratic case was put by Aharon Dolgopolsky in his The Nostratic Macrofamily and Linguitic Palaeontology, and it is here evaluated critically by linguists specialising in the language families concerned. Contents include: The Nostratic Macrofamily (A. Bomhard); Nostratic Languages: Internal and External Relationship (V. Shevoroshkin); Beyond Nostratic in Time and Space (G. Decsy); Nostratic and Linguistic Palaeontology in Methodological Perspective (L. Campbell); Family Trees and Favourite Daughters (A. McMahon, M. Lohr & R. McMahon); Linguistis Palaeontology: For and Against (I. Hegedus); Afroasiatic and the Nostratic Hypothesis (D. Appleyard); The Dravidian Perspective (K. Zvelebil); Altaic Evidence for Nostratic (A. Vovin); On Semitohamitic Comparison (R. Voight); Toward a Future History of Macrofamily Research (D. Sinor).