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[[File:Romance-lg-classification-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Linguistic map representing a [[tree model]] of the [[Romance languages]] based on the comparative method. The family tree has been rendered here as an [[Euler diagram]] without overlapping subareas. The [[Wave model (linguistics)|wave model]] allows overlapping regions.]]
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 emerged in 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>
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