Language Classification: History And Method

This page intentionally left blank Language Classification How are relationships established among the world’s languages? This is one of the most topical and most controversial questions in contemporary linguistics. The central aims of the book are to answer this question, to cut through the controversies, and to contribute to research in distant genetic relationships. In doing this the authors show how the methods have been employed, revealing which methods, techniques, and strategies have proven successful and which ones have proven ineffective. The book seeks to determine how particular language families were established and offers an evaluation of several of the most prominent and more controversial proposals of distant genetic relationship (such as Amerind, Nostratic, Eurasiatic, Proto-World, and others). Finally, the authors make recommendations for practice in future research. This book will contribute significantly to understanding language classification in general. Ly l e C a m p b e l l is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Utah. Wi l l i a m J . P o s e r is Adjunct Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of British Columbia. Language Classification History and Method Lyle Campbell and William J. Poser CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521880053 © Lyle Campbell and William J. Poser 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2008 ISBN-13 978-0-511-41381-0 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 978-0-521-88005-3 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents List of figures, tables, and charts Acknowledgments Preface 1 Introduction: how are languages shown to be related to one another? page vi vii ix 1 2 The beginning of comparative linguistics 13 3 “Asiatic Jones, Oriental Jones”: Sir William Jones’ role in the raise of comparative linguistics 32 4 Consolidation of comparative linguistics 48 5 How some languages were shown to belong to Indo-European 74 6 Comparative linguistics of other language families and reg