Re: Network model of IE languages from McMahon and McMahon (2005)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "mkelkar2003" <swatimkelkar@...> wrote:

> "In figure 6.9(a), English appears quite clearly as a North Germanic
> language.

Which is in itself cause for alarm, as English is not a North Germanic
language.

> In Figure 6.9 (b), however, the recoding of that single
> item (wing) as a loan means English appears outside the North Germanic
> branch. Indeed, in Figure 6.9 (b) English falls outside Germanic
> branch altogether, due to the influence of borrowings from Romance.
> These have been entirely appropriately coded as borrowings, or unique
> items, in the database, but cumulative effects of all these unique
> states is to distance English from the other Germanic languages which
> do not share them.

If you are classifying by similarity, this is an entirely reasonable
consequence. It is for this sort of reason that some try to use
synapomorphies when drawing up genealogical trees.

Note the parallels between Romany and English.

Richard.