Certain Issues of Current Research on Relations Between Languages

Vyacheslav Ivanov (University of California, Los Angeles, ivanov2108@gmail.com)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 1, 2009 - p.1-12

Abstract: The article represents a brief survey of certain actual problems of comparative-historical linguistics, the solution of which, in the author’s opinion, is necessary to achieve further breakthroughs in this field. This includes such issues as lexical and semantic reconstruction; a proper application of morphological and lexicostatistical criteria to determine the limits of language families and macrofamilies; phonetic interpretation of the reconstructed phonological systems; and finding better criteria to distinguish between borrowed and inherited lexicon. Some approaches to solving these and other issues are demonstrated by the author on the basis of ancient and reconstructed languages of the Near Eastern region.

Keywords: comparative method, Anatolian languages

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