Allan R. Bomhard Explained

Allan R. Bomhard is an American independent scholar publishing in the field of comparative linguistics. He is part of a small group of proponents of the Nostratic hypothesis, according to which the Indo-European languages, Uralic languages, Altaic languages, and Afroasiatic languages would all belong to a larger macrofamily.^[1] The theory is widely rejected by mainstream linguists as a fringe theory.^{[1] [2]} Among Nostratists, he has been described as "a maximalist who casts his nets as widely as possible" among far-flung languages not generally believed to be related.^[3]

Russian linguists Georgiy Starostin, Mikhail Zhivlov, and Alexei Kassian have criticized his work as imprecise and "historically unrealistic".^[4]

Books

• Toward Proto-Nostratic: A New Approach to the Comparison of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afroasiatic. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1984.^[5]
• Indo-European and the Nostratic Hypothesis. Charleston: SIGNUM Desktop Publishing, 1996.^[6]
• Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic: Comparative Phonology, Morphology, and Vocabulary. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 2 vols, 2008.
• The Nostratic Hypothesis in 2011: Trends and Issues. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man, 2011.^[7]
• An Introductory Grammar of the Pali Language. Charleston: Charleston Buddhist Fellowship, 2012.
• A Sketch of Proto-Indo-Anatolian Phonology. Florence, SC USA, 2024.

with John C. Kerns:

• The Nostratic Macrofamily: A Study in Distant Linguistic Relationship. Berlin, New York, NY, and Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994.^[8]

with Arnaud Fournet:

• The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian. La Garenne Colombes / Charleston, 2010.^[9]

See also

• Hermann Möller, Danish linguist

External links

• Allan Bomhard at ResearchGate
• Allan R. Bomhard: Nostratic linguistics is in full agreement with standard, recognized methodologies, 2019 interview

Notes and References

1. News: Linguists Debating Deepest Roots of Language. The New York Times. George. Johnson. June 27, 1995.
2. Book: Campbell . Lyle . Historical Linguistics: An Introduction . 1998 . The MIT Press . 978-0262518499 . 311. "Postulated remote relationships such as Amerind, Nostratic and Proto-World have been featured in newspapers, magazines and television documentaries, and yet these same proposals have been rejected by most mainstream historical linguistics".
3. Was There an ancient superlanguage called Nostratic?. Mosaic. November 9, 2022. Philologos.
4. Starostin . George . Georgiy Starostin . Zhivlov . Mikhail . Kassian . Alexei . The "Nostratic" roots of Indo-European: from Illich-Svitych to Dolgopolsky to future horizons . Slovo a Slovesnost . 2016 . 77 . 4 . 403.
5. Reviews of Toward Proto-Nostratic:
   • Kaye . Alan S. . Alan S. Kaye . 1985 . Review . Language . 61 . 4 . 887–891 . 10.2307/414496 . 0097-8507 . 414496.
   • Levin . Saul . January 1985 . Review . Diachronica . 2 . 1 . 97–104 . 10.1075/dia.2.1.09lev.
   • Helimski . Eugene . Eugene Helimski . 1987 . A "New Approach" to Nostratic Comparison . Journal of the American Oriental Society . 107 . 1 . 97–100 . 10.2307/602956 . 0003-0279 . 602956.
   • Palmaitis . Mykolas L. . December 1986 . 10.1515/9783110243338.305 . Indogermanische Forschungen . 305–317 . Besprechungsaufsätze: New Contributions to "Proto-Nostratic" .
6. Reviews of Indo-European and the Nostratic Hypothesis:
   • McCall . Daniel F. . 1997 . Rev. of Bomhard, Indo-European and the Nostratic Hypothesis . . 30 . 2 . 473–76 . 10.2307/221291 . 221291.
   • Sidwell . Paul J. . Paul Sidwell . January 1998 . Review . Diachronica . 15 . 2 . 341–348 . 10.1075/dia.15.2.09sid.
   • Gluhak. Alemko. Filologija. 29. 1997. hr. Allan R. Bomhard, Indo-European and the Nostratic hypothesis. 200–205.
   • Matthews. S.. Word: Journal of the Linguistic Circle of New York. 1998. 49. 1. 113. Review of Indo-European and the Nostratic hypothesis.
7. Greppin . John A.C. . John A. C. Greppin . 2017 . Review of The Nostratic Hypothesis in 2011. Prace Językoznawcze . XIX . 3 . 235–250 . 1509-5304.
8. Reviews of The Nostratic Macrofamily:
   • Orel . Vladimir . Vladimir Orel . 1996 . Rev. of Bomhard and Kerns, The Nostratic Macrofamily . . 38 . 1 . 155–58 . 30028451.
   • Campbell . Lyle . Lyle Campbell . 1996 . Review of The Nostratic Macrofamily: A Study in Distant Linguistic Relationship . Language . 72 . 3 . 656–657 . 10.2307/416301 . 0097-8507 . 416301.
   • Picard . Marc . March 1996 . Review . Canadian Journal of Linguistics . en . 41 . 1 . 62–65 . 10.1017/S0008413100020284 . 148709978 . 0008-4131.
9. Review of The Indo-European Elements in Hurrian. Alexei. Kassian. Journal of Language Relationship. 4. 2010. 199–211.