Work

Word families, allofams, and the comparative method

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: Linguists researching the Trans-Himalayan family do not have a self-perception as working outside the mainstream of historical linguistics, but ‘word families’ and ‘allofams’ are important elements in their thinking despite the absence of these terms in the wider discipline. A close examination of the practice of historical linguistics in Indo-European and Trans-Himalayan leads to the conclusion that those phenomena treated as word families admit superior analyses in more traditional terms.

Source: Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale

DOI: 10.1163/19606028-04802001

Authors: Hannes A. FELLNER, Nathan W. HILL

Institutions: University of Vienna, SOAS University of London

Language: English

Topic: Linguistics and language evolution

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Austrian Science Fund

Award: The Characters that shaped the Silk Road - A Database and Digital Paleography of Tarim Brahmi