Sociological Linguistics

[Nicholas Widdows]

<Pat Ryan:>
languages like IE,
which have principally CVC roots, can be analyzed so that the CVC roots are
recognized to be the results of compounds of CV+CV elements in an earlier
(than Nostratic) language.
</Pat Ryan>

This is putting a lot of functional load on plain CV. Open-syllabled
languages are usually polysyllabic (Polynesian) and monosyllabic languages
are usually strongly tonal (Sinitic, Vietnamese).

Quite possibly Proto-World was CV. No, let me correct that. If no modern
descendant is, parsimony suggests Proto-World wasn't either, but quite
possibly Pre-Proto-World was.

Possibly some descendants of Pre-Proto-World have by chance preserved
against all entropy some features of PPW; such as CV morpheme pattern. I'd
imagine all its descendants had an equal stake in this lottery, so why
didn't CV happen to be preserved in Inuktitut or Ge^-Pano-Carib or
Gunwingguan or Gur, rather than -- remarkable coincidence -- the two most
"ancient" languages we can read, in the jejune sense of ancient meaning a
mere 97% of the distance from PPW.

Nicholas