Re: Evidence for Nostratic? (was Re: Proto-Uralic?)

Rob Haden scripsit:

> The question is, why was
> generis kept that way, but *corperis became corporis analogically?  Perhaps
> the former was more common than the latter?
The whole point of introducing the idea of "analogical change" is that it
explains changes that don't operate regularly; if analogy were regular,
we would speak of sound-change rather than analogy.  Analogical change
occurs when people *feel* something to be analogous, and when all the
speakers are dead, there is really no accounting for their feelings.

        Sound-change operates regularly to produce irregularity;
        analogy operates irregularly to produce regularity.
                --anybody know exactly which neo-grammarian said this?

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
Original line from _The Warrior's Apprentice_ by Lois McMaster Bujold:
"Only on Barrayar would pulling a loaded needler start a stampede toward one."
English-to-Russian-to-English mangling thereof: "Only on Barrayar you risk to
lose support instead of finding it when you threat with the charged weapon."

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