Proper methodology (was: RE: [tied] Re: Mother of all IE languages)

From: elmeras2000
Message: 28370
Date: 2003-12-12

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
> >
> >You may have your reasons to posit your original system, but the
reasons
> >appear to be alien to Indo-European. Am I right?
>
> No.

Well, that's terrible. All the evidenc you quote in support of your
proto-morphemes is made up of cases for which we have very easy
explanations already - explanations that do not force us to change
the phonological inventory of PIE.

It takes no amount of force to derive the Armenian plural marker -k'
from a plain *s, nor the Slavic 2sg and loc.pl. -x- from plain *-s-,
nor the initial of 'six' from *sw-/s-. I really see no evidence at
all for the hazy morphophonemes tW and sW. The problems inherent in
the traditional explanations are so small that nothing can be built
on scenarios designed to avoid them.

Jens