Re: [tied] Baltic-Slavic disintegration ( was: PIE's closest relati

Peter wrote:

> > The degree of similarity of two pairs - Baltic with Slavic and Iranian
> with
> > Indic - is approximately the same.
> > If so the time of dividing of Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian must be
> > approximately the same.
>
> That does not follow. You are assuming langauges change at the same rate,
> which is known not to be true.

I agree that there is no rigid dependence. But there must be a good
correlation. Otherways such things as glottochronology would not have any
sense.
An important part of any natural sciense is built on statistical laws
(thermodynamics, physical chemistry, the biological evolution theory etc.).
Many humanitarian disciplines use them widely (economics, demography etc.).
Linguistics must not be an exclusion in this sense. However I agree, we must
speak about a certain probabitily, not about the firmly established facts in
such cases.

> You are also assuming that Baltic and Slavic
> were originally one dialect, which separated, but that is also disputed by
> some scholars, who say there never was a "Balto-Slavic".

Yes, but this makes my position in the initial discussion even stronger. In
this case each of these languages (Baltic and Slavic) had to separate
independently from the Satemic subfamily, i.e. as early as Indo-Iranian did
this. Could this happen as late as in 750 BC (this was the subject of the
discussion)?

Alexander