The Comparative Method and Linguistic Reconstruction

The Comparative Method 'steps'

1. *Assemble cognates* from daughter languages, focus on 'basic vocab' 2. *Establish sound correspondences* avoiding those due to chance, borrowing or universal tendencies 3. *Reconstruct the proto-sound* -> directionality: use well-known paths of phonological change e.g. s>h not h>s -> majority wins -> factor in features held in common -> economy/Occam's Razor: the variant with the fewest independent changes is most likely 4. Check the plausibility of the reconstructed sound from the perspective of the overall phonological inventory of the proto-language and of linguistic universals

Subgrouping

1. Assemble data from related languages 2. Reconstruct proto-language 3. Note which languages have undergone sound changes and their chronology 4. *Group together languages that have undergone shared changes*; strongest evidence for common development comes from unusual/unexpected changes, sporadic changes, multiple sets of sound correspondences

Sound correspondence/ correspondence set

> A set of 'cognate' sounds found in the related words of cognate sets which correspond between related languages because of a common ancestral sound

Cognate

> A word (or morpheme) that is related to a word/morpheme in sister languages due to a common form in the proto-language

Sister langauge

> Languages that are related to each other because of a common anscestor

Reflex

> The descendant in a daughter language of a sound of the proto-language is a *reflex* of the original sound, the original sound is reflected by the sound that descends from it in the daughter language

Proto-Language

> The once-spoken language from which daughter languages descend > Reconstructed by comparative method

The Comparative Method

A method that compares cognates between related languages to postulate/reconstruct the original form in the ancestral language

Internal Reconstruction

Similar methods to the Comparative method applied to single language > identify paradigms with allomorphs > postulate original form > postulate changes that would have led to the allomorphs