Comparative method: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:54, 5 August 2024

Revision as of 23:57, 8 January 2025

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The reconstruction of unknown proto-languages is inherently subjective. In the [[Proto-Algonquian]] example above, the choice of ''*m'' as the parent [[phoneme]] is only ''likely'', not ''certain''. It is conceivable that a Proto-Algonquian language with ''*b'' in those positions split into two branches, one that preserved ''*b'' and one that changed it to ''*m'' instead, and while the first branch developed only into [[Arapaho language|Arapaho]], the second spread out more widely and developed into all the other [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] tribes. It is also possible that the nearest common ancestor of the [[Algonquian languages]] used some other sound instead, such as ''*p'', which eventually mutated to ''*b'' in one branch and to ''*m'' in the other.

Examples of strikingly complicated and even circular developments are indeed known to have occurred (such as Proto-Indo-European ''*t'' > Pre-Proto-Germanic ''*þ'' > [[Proto-Germanic]] ''*ð'' > Proto-West-Germanic ''*d'' > [[Old High German]] ''{{lang|goh|t''}} in ''{{lang|goh|fater''}} > Modern German ''{{lang|de|Vater''}}), but in the absence of any evidence or other reason to postulate a more complicated development, the preference of a simpler explanation is justified by the principle of parsimony, also known as [[Occam's razor]]. Since reconstruction involves many such choices, some linguists{{who|date=January 2020}} prefer to view the reconstructed features as abstract representations of sound correspondences, rather than as objects with a historical time and place.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

The existence of proto-languages and the validity of the comparative method is verifiable if the reconstruction can be matched to a known language, which may be known only as a shadow in the [[loanword]]s of another language. For example, [[Finnic languages]] such as [[Finnish language|Finnish]] have borrowed many words from an early stage of [[Germanic languages|Germanic]], and the shape of the loans matches the forms that have been reconstructed for [[Proto-Germanic]]. Finnish ''{{lang|fi|kuningas''}} 'king' and ''{{lang|fi|kaunis''}} 'beautiful' match the Germanic reconstructions *''kuningaz'' and *''skauniz'' (> German ''{{lang|de|König''}} 'king', ''{{lang|de|schön''}} 'beautiful').<ref>{{harvnb|Kylstra|1996|p=62}} for KAUNIS, p. 122 for KUNINGAS.</ref>

====Additional models====