[tied] Re: searching for common words for all today's languages

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <G&P@...> wrote:

>
> >> * absurdly generous criteria for phonological matches;
>
> > Applying the above objections to the idea is a categorial

mistake,

> > they must apply to the individual members
>
> Only partly. If in one pair you suggest /t/ is related to /d/,

and in

> another you suggest /t/ is related to /T/ and in another you

suggest /t/ is

> related to /d/, and in another....., then you get the "absurdly

generous

> criteria". You can't tackle a single pair on its own, if you want

to reveal

> that almost any dental phoneme is supposed to be related to almost

any

> other, and so on.
>

True. But even here, the proposal the set are loans is more robust
to that type of objections, although not immune (of course); one
might have loans following several paths among languages, occurring
in several time periods etc.


Torsten