Behaghel’s claim that verb finality in German dependent clauses (DCs) reflects Latin influence (1892, 1932) has been revived by Chirita (1997, 2003). According to Chirita, DC word order remains variable up to Early New High German, while in Latin, verb-finality is more frequent in DCs than main… read more
According to Pedersen (1913) and Thurneysen (1946) Old Irish had three different consonant qualities: i-colored/palatalized (before original front vowel), u-colored/labiovelarized (before original u-vowel), and neutral (elsewhere). The first two are normally indicated by preconsonantal i and u… read more
In a 2001 publication on reanalysis and linguistic change, Henning Andersen states that “(i)t is not clear yet what constitutes structural ambiguity in surface realizations; this remains a question for the future”. As a tribute to Henning, this paper examines a case of (near-)systematic structural… read more
Although the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European as verb-final is widely accepted, there continue to be dissenting opinions (e.g. Friedrich 1975). See e.g. Pires & Thomason (2008), who question the fruitfulness of Indo-European syntactic reconstruction. In this article I address two issues:… read more
Although the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European as verb-final is widely accepted, there continue to be dissenting opinions (e.g. Friedrich 1975). See e.g. Pires & Thomason (2008), who question the fruitfulness of Indo-European syntactic reconstruction. In this article I address two issues:… read more
In historical-comparative linguistics some languages commonly hold a special, privileged position. I consider several cases of this type and the effects of such privileging on historical-comparative linguistics. The best documented case is that of Sanskrit, whose “deprivileging” in the late 19th… read more
