From: mkelkar2003
Message: 36987
Date: 2005-04-08
> At 5:15:45 PM on Thursday, April 7, 2005, mkelkar2003 wrote:So the Albanians got the ending right but lost the beginning s.
>
> > 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