18.440 language families

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 440.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
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         Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 07:57:46 +0000
         From: Norman Hinton <hinton_at_springnet1.com>
         Subject: Re: 18.437 how natural and real language families?

Yuri: every thing you ask for hs been defined and studied for many years. (
The concept of mathematical compactness is irrelevant,however.)

I hardly know where to start recommending books: you might try pp. 29-38
of Alfred Bammesburger's _English Linguistics_ (Heidelberg: Carl Weiner,
1989) for a quick overview.

A classic and extended study of the relations among Germanic languages
is Prokosch's _A Comparative German Grammar_ (Baltimore: Linguistic
Society of America, 1938).

The bib for the Introduction and Chapter 1 on p. 217 of _The Atlas of
Languages_, a nice popular treatment by FActs on FIle, will give you a
number of important books on the subjects of language development and
relationships.

There is enough material on this subject to keep you reading for the next
10 years or so at the least.
Received on Tue Dec 21 2004 - 03:16:44 EST