Phonetic Similarity in Internal Reconstruction

In calling attention to the shortcomings of the existing theory of internal reconstruction, Wallace L. Chafe finds it instructive ... to consider two different morph alternations which Hoenigswald cites in different places in his article. One is the alternation - t-/-þ - ‘past participle’ in Gothic ( hafts ‘restrained’ / salbōþs ‘anointed'). - t - occurs after f , h , and s , while - þ - occurs in all other environments. The other alternation is bunt-/bund - ‘alliance’ in German. bunt - occurs in syllable-final position, bund - in all other environments. The most economical inferences based on these data are that in Gothic either (a) þ > t after f , h , and s , or (b) t > þ everywhere except after f , h , and s ; and that in German either (a) d > t in syllable final position, or (b) t > d everywhere except in syllable-final position. Hoenigswald chooses inference (b) for Gothic, inference (a) for German. The completely parallel data provide no basis for these opposite choices, much less for the conclusion that the Gothic situation ‘allows us to reconstruct one original morpheme - to -’

Linguistics · Similarity (geometry) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

• The Method of Internal Reconstruction in Linguistics

  LAMBERT ISEBAERT•Folia Linguistica Historica•1991

  Add to list

• The Linguistic Society of America and North American Linguistics, 1950-1968

  Archibald A Hill•Historiographia Linguistica•1991

  Add to list