Nostratic, a.
(nɒˈstrætɪk)
Also Nostratian.
[ad. G. nostratisch, f. L. nostrās, -ātis of our country: see -ic.]
(See quots.)
| 1931 J. W. Spargo tr. Pedersen's Linguistic Science in Nineteenth Century viii. 338 As a comprehensive designation for the families of languages which are related to Indo-European, we may employ the expression Nostratian Languages (from Latin nostrās ‘our countryman’). 1966 B. Collinder in Birnbaum & Puhvel Anc. Indo-Europ. Dial. 199 Holger Pedersen used to speak about a ‘nostratic’ family of languages, comprising Indo-European, Semitic-Egyptian-Hamitic, Uralic, Altaic, Yukagir, and Eskimo. 1966 M. Pei Gloss. Linguistic Terminol. 136 Japhetic, a hypothetical language family claimed to include North Caucasian, South Caucasian, Sumerian, Elamite, Asianic, Basque, Etruscan, etc... Synonyms: Alarodian, Nostratic. 1973 Jrnl. R. Asiatic Soc. 46 The term Nostratic is defined by the words in brackets following the title of the book, ‘Semito-Hamitic, Kartvelian, Indo-European, Uralian, Dravidian, Altaic’. |