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Re: Yay!!!! I have a web page!!!!

From:charles <catty@...>
Date:Thursday, November 12, 1998, 3:10
Josh Roth wrote:
> > In a message dated 11/11/98 8:50:54 PM, fortytwo@UFL.EDU writes: > > >On your languages page, you have a family tree of languages, but a lot > >of the languages are connected to two ancestors. How is this possible? > >Languages only ever have one parent language, tho there may be lots of > >influence from another. > > Well these languages did have 2 ancestors....basically the speakers of 2 > different languages moved into the same area and each group learned some of > the other language, and the two languages mixed over time. That's really > never happened?
A family tree of matrilineal descent would always show one parent per child, but a patrilineal might well get complicated ... and many a b*stard tongue there be. I wouldn't argue if a chart of English showed a German father, French mother, and several "uncles" ...