From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 5977
Date: 2001-02-08
----- Original Message -----From: tgpedersen@...Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 12:42 PMSubject: [tied] Re: Oesysla/Eysysla etc.> Let me see if I understand you correctly.
> We have an unattested language *A, from which are descended languages B1, B2, and B3. A certain root occurs in B1, but not in B2 and B3.
> Therefore it did not occur in *A. Is this what you mean?Precisely. That's what we assume in science, unless there is some evidence to the contrary (e.g. the existence of the word in a related outgroup). Occam's Razor, or the principle of parsimony.
>>... a name more logical from the point of view of the Finnic natives, for whom it has always been "The Island".> Really? And what was Hiamaa then to them?I don't know what the Hiiu- in Hiiumaa means, my knowledge of historical Estonian is limited. If there are any Baltic Finnic experts or Estonian-speakers among our members, maybe they can help. But Saaremaa is *the* major island in those parts, more than twice as big as Hiiumaa.
Piotr