Comparative method: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:23, 27 October 2023

Revision as of 18:42, 27 October 2023

Line 158:

The next step involves determining the regular sound-correspondences exhibited by the lists of potential cognates. For example, in the Polynesian data above, it is apparent that words that contain ''t'' in most of the languages listed have cognates in Hawaiian with ''k'' in the same position. That is visible in multiple cognate sets: the words glossed as 'one', 'three', 'man' and 'taboo' all show the relationship. The situation is called a "regular correspondence" between ''k'' in Hawaiian and ''t'' in the other Polynesian languages. Similarly, a regular correspondence can be seen between Hawaiian and Rapanui ''h'', Tongan and Samoan ''f'', Maori ''ɸ'', and Rarotongan ''ʔ''.

Mere phonetic similarity, as between [[English language|English]] ''day'' and [[Latin]] ''{{lang|la|dies''}} (both with the same meaning), has no probative value.<ref name="ltwo">{{harvnb|Lyovin|1997|p=2}}.</ref> English initial ''d-'' does not ''regularly'' match {{nowrap|Latin ''d-''<ref name="bonetwoseven">{{harvnb|Beekes|1995|p=127}}</ref>}} since a large set of English and Latin non-borrowed cognates cannot be assembled such that English ''d'' repeatedly and consistently corresponds to Latin ''d'' at the beginning of a word, and whatever sporadic matches can be observed are due either to chance (as in the above example) or to [[loanword|borrowing]] (for example, Latin ''{{lang|la|diabolus''}} and English ''devil'', both ultimately of Greek origin<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=devil|encyclopedia=Dictionary.com|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/devil}}</ref>). However, English and Latin exhibit a regular correspondence of ''t-'' : ''d-''<ref name="bonetwoseven"/> (in which "A : B" means "A corresponds to B"), as in the following examples:<ref>In Latin, {{angle bracket|c}} represents {{IPA|/k/}}; ''dingua'' is an [[Old Latin]] form of the word later attested as ''lingua'' ("tongue").</ref>

{| class="wikitable"

Line 169:

|-

| align=left | &nbsp;'''Latin'''&nbsp;

| align=center | &nbsp;{{lang|la|'''d'''ecem}}&nbsp;

| align=center | &nbsp;{{lang|la|'''d'''uo}}&nbsp;

| align=center | &nbsp;{{lang|la|'''d'''ūco}}&nbsp;

| align=center | &nbsp;{{lang|la|'''d'''ingua}}&nbsp;

| align=center | &nbsp;{{lang|la|'''d'''ent-}}&nbsp;

|}

Line 183:

First, it was found{{by whom|date=November 2017}} that many sound changes are conditioned by a specific ''context''. For example, in both [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] and [[Sanskrit]], an [[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]] [[stop consonant|stop]] evolved into an unaspirated one, but only if a second aspirate occurred later in the same word;<ref>{{harvnb|Beekes|1995|p=128}}.</ref> this is [[Grassmann's law]], first described for [[Sanskrit]] by [[Sanskrit grammarians|Sanskrit grammarian]] [[Pāṇini]]<ref>{{harvnb|Sag|1974|p=591}}; {{harvnb|Janda|1989}}.</ref> and promulgated by [[Hermann Grassmann]] in 1863.

Second, it was found that sometimes sound changes occurred in contexts that were later lost. For instance, in Sanskrit [[velar consonant|velars]] (''k''-like sounds) were replaced by [[palatal consonant|palatals]] (''ch''-like sounds) whenever the following vowel was ''*i'' or ''*e''.<ref>The asterisk (*) indicates that the sound is inferred/reconstructed, rather than historically documented or attested</ref> Subsequent to this change, all instances of ''*e'' were replaced by ''a''.<ref>More accurately, earlier ''*e'', ''*o'', and ''*a'' merged as ''a''.</ref> The situation could be reconstructed only because the original distribution of ''e'' and ''a'' could be recovered from the evidence of other [[Indo-European languages]].<ref>{{harvnb|Beekes|1995|pp=60–61}}.</ref> For instance, the [[Latin]] suffix ''{{lang|la|que''}}, "and", preserves the original ''*e'' vowel that caused the consonant shift in Sanskrit:

{| class="wikitable"