Some issues of the genealogical classification of the Dardic languages based on historical phonology |
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Anton Kogan (Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, kogan_anton@yahoo.com) |
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Journal of Language Relationship, № 13/1-2, 2015 - p.1-21 |
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Abstract: Until recently, the genetic classification of Dardic languages has remained unclear in many respects. One of the questions that has not yet received a convincing answer is the existence of a separate East Dardic branch. A recent study of East Dardic lexical data by means of a modernized version of the lexicostatistical method has shown that East Dardic languages undoubtedly constitute a genetically valid linguistic entity. In the present paper an attempt is made to establish historical phonological innovations that would be common to all of them. In particular, the author has successfully revealed a bundle of four isoglosses that clearly distinguish East Dardic from the rest of the Dardic group. Although some of these isoglosses also involve other languages of the area, namely Indo-Aryan and Iranian, the whole bundle is not found anywhere outside East Dardic. |
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Keywords: language classification, historical phonology, Dardic languages, Aryan languages |
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