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

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Monday, July 7, 2003, 17:55
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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Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>