Re: Reversible sound change applier

Alex Fink skrev:
> On Wed, 10 May 2006 17:29:19 -0500, Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...> wrote:
>
>
>>How does that work with mergers?  E.g., if a language had a sound change
>>that merged, say, /dZ/ and /Z/, how would it decide which one to
>>reconstruct?  Without looking at related languages/dialects, or possibly
>>inflectional forms within the language, there's no way of knowing which
>>one is the case.
>>=========================================================================
>
>
> It takes the simple-minded way out and returns every possible reconstruction
> (usually a great many of them are ridiculous, in fact).
Actually that's what I'd want.  I'd certainly *not* want
for the computer to decide which form to choose as the
correct one -- certainly not without telling me what the
forms were that it rejected.  Some things a human just
do better!

What about the reverse case: dialect splits,
as when XYZ becomes XAZ in one dialect, XYB in
another while remaining in a third, but then
all three undergo X > C / _ Y (which obviously
doesn't apply in one of the dialect forms?

--
/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch at melroch dot se

    "Maybe" is a strange word.  When mum or dad says it
    it means "yes", but when my big brothers say it it
    means "no"!

                            (Philip Jonsson jr, age 7)