Re: [tied] The Arbitrary and capricious nature of PIE "reconstructi

From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 36979
Date: 2005-04-08

At 5:15:45 PM on Thursday, April 7, 2005, mkelkar2003 wrote:

> Here is how PIE reconstruction works as explained by
> McWhorter (2001, p. 45-46). He gives seven IE cognates for
> the word "sister-in-law".

I see that Miguel's beaten me to the specifics, so I'll
merely point out that if you've accurately summarized
McWhorter's popular presentation, it's greatly inferior to
the one by Calvert Watkins, also for a lay audience, that
you can find at <http://www.bartleby.com/61/8.html>.
Watkins gives the data more accurately, emphasizes that the
reconstruction does not take place in a vacuum but rather
takes into account much more comparative data than just
these cognates, emphasizes systematic correspondences rather
than 'majority rule', and offers a genuine argument for
reconstructing *-os rather than *-a: (namely, the same
convincing argument that Miguel's already given).

Brian