From: mkelkar2003
Message: 47939
Date: 2007-03-17
>high.
> On 2007-03-16 14:58, mkelkar2003 wrote:
>
> > But let me ask you, is this criterion uniformely applied to group
> > languages in families i.e they must have shared innovations and are
> > all langauges that have shared innovations ALWAYS classified into one
> > family. If so, why is Albanian hanging out like that?
>
> Just because it lacks such tell-tale innovations shared with other
> groups. The satem treatment of the *k^ series is a possible exception
> (though some argue the satem shift may have happened independently in
> several branches). Commonplace changes like the merger of *a and *o
> don't count, since the likelihood of their independent occurrence is
>Thanks! So the vowel merger is an archaism not enough to group
> Piotr
>