From: Torsten
Message: 65753
Date: 2010-01-24
>I agree.
> At 4:25:46 PM on Saturday, January 23, 2010, Torsten wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, johnvertical@ wrote:
>
> >> Note for example that we cannot indiscriminately clump
> >> *thee and *tSai together, they are two separate loan
> >> complexes (despite the shared meaning). We can only
> >> securely join them given an understanding of historical
> >> Chinese phonology.
>
> > Rest assured that if we knew nothing of Chinese phonology
> > there would be two opposing linguistic camps: one would
> > say they are related, another that we are not permitted to
> > make that inference.
>
> And they'd be right. It would be entirely permissible to
> conjecture a possible relationship, perhaps even to think it
> probable, but it would clearly be impermissible to conclude
> that they definitely were related.