The purpose of this discussion group is to explore how the various proposed language macro-families, such as Nostratic, Austronesian/Austric, Nilo-Saharan, Dene-Sino-Caucasian, etc. might or might not relate to one another. Possibilities include genetic (derived from a common ancestor language) relationship and areal influence, among others. Other possibilities can include, but aren't limited to, grammatic or lexical similarities, and how these similarities might have arisen.

Spam, flaming, and off-topic discussions will not be tolerated. Issues that will be considered off-topic include, but are not limited to, ethnocentric quasi-theories that some or all languages derive from an arbitrarily proposed common source. It is requested that discussions about "Proto-World" or other similar concepts be kept to a minimum AND within the context of the intended purpose of this group.

Since there might not be appropriate discussion fora for some of the proposed macro-families, such as Dene-Sino-Caucasian or Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Kordofanian, etc., it is reasonable to have some discussion of individual macro-families and their respective component language families, but let's please keep such discussions relevant to the primary topic, which is how the various macro-families might or might not relate to one another. For detailed discussions that focus on macro-families (and their component languages and language families), for which there are established discussion groups, such as Nostratic or Austric/Austronesian, it is expected that such discussions will be moved after a reasonable time to those those particular groups (i.e. Nostratic-L, austronesian, austric, etc.).