From: Rick McCallister
Message: 57598
Date: 2008-04-18
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"Just slow down, explain it to us step by step in your
> <BMScott@...> wrote:
> >
> > At 3:30:14 PM on Wednesday, April 16, 2008,
> stlatos wrote:
> >
> > > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan"
> > > <proto-language@> wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > >> All these long unexplained lists in your
> message! What do
> > >> they prove?
> >
> > > What do you mean by 'unexplained'? I've given
> lists of
> > > hundreds of rules before.
> >
> > Yes, you have. Do you really think that anyone
> else has
> > learnt them?
>
> I'm not suggesting that everyone read every rule
> I've ever given
> here to understand each new message. I was replying
> to a specific,
> and I believe unfair, criticism that the changes I
> showed were
> 'unexplained'. I simply said that I had explained
> most before, and
> most importantly, that none of the changes needed a
> rule-based
> explanation in this case. When I show, for example,
> *mm,kWtti+ >
> *muNks.t.i+, I don't need to explain each step
> individually (though I
> have given them before). What makes it necessary to
> say kW>k or the
> other changes, which are all well-known for In-Ir or
> Iranian itself
> (except perhaps C, > uC for Dardic, etc., which I
> did restate).
>
> I even sent a follow-up message giving more
> information for anyone
> interested, and clarifying most of what I wrote for
> those who aren't
> so familiar with my rules. What more do you want me
> to do?
>
> > Perhaps Piotr retains a general mental
> > outline, but I'd be very much surprised if anyone
> else
> > retained even that much. You're using a
> non-standard
> > reconstruction of PIE phonology, your own
> notation,
>
> What do you mean by this? I'm using a perfectly
> normal system with
> only the modifications needed to show contrasts for
> n, vs n. (syllabic
> vs retro.) and s^ vs sY (alveopal. (sh) vs
> palatalized).
>
> This isn't the result of a non-standard rec. of
> PIE, just the desire
> to use the same system for the proto- and
> little-known or -studied
> languages which are described at the same time.
>
>