Newsgroups: sci.archaeology,sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!rutgers!news.sgi.com!howland.erols.net!netcom.com!petrich
From: petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Re: Etruscans [was: Re: The Coming of the Greeks]
Message-ID: <petrichE16H9D.G86@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <54q9ou$85o_002@dialin.csus.edu> <56tvio$cbl@fridge-nf0.shore.net> <56uq31$qdf@frysja.sn.no> <56v34n$9cu@fridge-nf0.shore.net>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 16:46:25 GMT
Lines: 52
Sender: petrich@netcom20.netcom.com
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.archaeology:56271 sci.lang:64598

In article <56v34n$9cu@fridge-nf0.shore.net>,
Steve Whittet <whittet@shore.net> wrote:

>>You can count the number of entries in a particular dictionary.
>>What can you learn from that? 

>You can compare the relative size of languages at various stages
>of a languages development. If you compare the language Washoe
>uses to the language I use, I am probably better able to discuss
>the historical evolution of language with the language I use
>than she is with the language she uses.

	Ignoring phonology and grammar. Just to give one example, Old 
English preserves much of the more basic vocabulary of English, but its 
phonology and grammar are different enough to make it a foreign language 
for modern-English speakers.

>If you compare Sumerian and Akkadian with the language Washoe
>uses and the language I use, I expect you will find that those
>languages come somewhere in between. Presumably by the time
>you get around to comparing Greek and Latin with German the
>difference is slight enough that linguistic complexity and 
>sophistication are factors.

	That is absolute horseshit. All of the above-mentioned languages
with the exception of Washoe's one have full-scale grammars; one can
translate most of the discussion we are having into them with the *only*
thing necessary to add is some of our vocabulary; OTOH, Washoe's
"language" does not contain many of the constructs that we use on a
regular basis, such as subject-verb-object sentences, complete with
numerous modifiers. Diagramming a sentence is rather awkward in ASCII, 
but I will try with one example:

All
    of
	languages
		  the
		  above-mentioned
    with
	exception
		  the
		  of
		       one
			    Washoe's
have
	grammars
		full-scale
-- 
Loren Petrich				Happiness is a fast Macintosh
petrich@netcom.com			And a fast train
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