The Origin of the Masai Passive

Bibliographic Data

ID2508993
AuthorsJoseph Greenberg (corresponding author), Joseph H Greenberg
Year1959
Volume29
Issue2
Pages171-176
Publication date1959-04-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1157519
OpenAlexW2092312052
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited4

Opening ParagraphThere are two methods by which facts concerning the unrecorded past of a language may be recovered. The first may be labelled the external method. By confrontation with comparable facts of other languages to which it is related, we may reconstruct in some measure the past of a particular language. This is the familiar comparative method. Sometimes, however, another procedure, that of internal reconstruction, may be applied, independently or as a supplement to the comparative method. The facts of the language as described at a given time suggest certain hypotheses regarding its own past. The present study involves a combination of these two methods. An interpretation strongly suggested by the Masai language in its present form receives further confirmation and elucidation by the subsequent application of the comparative method

Comparative method · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Measure (data warehouse · Paragraph · Ancient Near East History · Computer Science · History · Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

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