Comparative method: Difference between revisions

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In [[linguistics]], the '''comparative method''' is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with [[genetic relationship (linguistics)|common descent]] from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards to infer the properties of that ancestor. The comparative method may be contrasted with the method of [[internal reconstruction]] in which the internal development of a single language is inferred by the analysis of features within that language.<ref>{{harvnb|Lehmann|1993|pp=31 ff}}.</ref> Ordinarily, both methods are used together to reconstruct prehistoric phases of languages; to fill in gaps in the historical record of a language; to discover the development of phonological, morphological and other linguistic systems and to confirm or to refute hypothesised relationships between languages.

The comparative method wasemerged developed overin the early 19th century with the birth of [[Indo-European studies]], then took a definite scientific approach with the works of the [[Neogrammarians]] in the late 19th–early 20th century.<ref name=":0" /> Key contributions were made by the Danish scholars [[Rasmus Christian Rask|Rasmus Rask]] (1787–1832) and [[Karl Verner]] (1846–1896) and the German scholar [[Jacob Grimm]] (1785–1863). The first linguist to offer reconstructed forms from a [[proto-language]] was [[August Schleicher]], (1821–1868) in his ''Compendium der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen'', originally published in 1861.<ref>{{harvnb|Lehmann|1993|p=26}}.</ref> Here is Schleicher's explanation of why he offered reconstructed forms:<ref>{{harvnb|Schleicher|1874|p=8}}.</ref>

<blockquote>In the present work an attempt is made to set forth the inferred [[Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European original language]] side by side with its really existent derived languages. Besides the advantages offered by such a plan, in setting immediately before the eyes of the student the final results of the investigation in a more concrete form, and thereby rendering easier his insight into the nature of particular [[Indo-European languages]], there is, I think, another of no less importance gained by it, namely that it shows the baselessness of the assumption that the non-Indian Indo-European languages were derived from Old-Indian ([[Sanskrit]]).</blockquote>

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===Neo-grammarian approach===

Similar discoveries made by the ''Junggrammatiker'' (usually translated as "[[Neogrammarians]]") at the [[University of Leipzig]] in the late 19th century led them to conclude that all sound changes were ultimately regular, resulting in the famous statement by [[Karl Brugmann]] and [[Hermann Osthoff]] in 1878 that "sound laws have no exceptions".<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Szemerényi|1996|p=21}}.</ref> That idea is fundamental to the modern comparative method since it necessarily assumes regular correspondences between sounds in related languages and thus regular sound changes from the proto-language. The ''Neogrammarian hypothesis'' led to the application of the comparative method to reconstruct [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] since [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] was then by far the most well-studied language family. Linguists working with other families soon followed suit, and the comparative method quickly became the established method for uncovering linguistic relationships.<ref name="ssix"/>

==Application==