>...> Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 10:38:43 +0200
> From: BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
>...> At 18:50 2001-05-08 +0000, Raymond Brown wrote:
> >At 2:04 pm -0400 7/5/01, John Cowan wrote:
> > >In short:
>...> > > Sound change operates regularly to produce irregularities;
> > > Analogy operates irregularly to produce regularities.
>...> >Very nicely put!
>...> >Is it original Cowan? If so, can I quote it (with acknowledgment of
> >course)?
>...> It should be put into every historical linguistics textbook!
Of course. And our hero has it: Trask, _Historical Linguistics_, 1996,
middle of page 108. He refers to it as Sturtevant's Paradox, and dates
it back to the late XIX in the form:
Sound change is regular, but produces irregularity;
analogy is irregular, but produces regularity.
Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)