Conservative dilemma

[Herb Stahlke]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

>>> Larry Trask <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk> 09/06 7:57 AM >>>

It is *possible* that multilateral comparison, skilfully pursued, might
be capable of throwing up interesting hypotheses for further
investigation by more rigorous methods.  But I do *not* believe that MC
is capable, all by itself, of establishing previously unknown genetic
groupings -- contra Greenberg, who obviously believes that it is.

>>>>>>

Unfortunately nearly all of the reference to Greenberg's work in this
discussion has been to his Language in the Americas.  His earlier work in
Africa not only established at least two previously unknown genetic gouping,
Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic, but has stood the test of four decades of
research.  The Afro-Asiatic classification has been modified largely by
Bender's work on Omotic, and Niger-Congo has seen some interesting internal
restructuring, most of it reported in Bendor-Samuel's (1989) The Niger-Congo
Languages.  In the Niger-Congo case, the restructuring has confirmed doubts
that Greenberg expressed about some of the subgrouping, e.g., the status of
Benue-Congo and Kwa.  However, before Greenberg, Mande and West Atlantic were
not commonly thought to be part of the same group that contained B-C and Kwa,
and the Adamawa-Eastern languages and the Kordofanian languages had simply been
dropped in the geographical/ethnic catch-all "Sudanic".  The full Nilo-Saharan,
especially the inclusion of Songhay, remains uncertain, and the inclusion of
Hatsa and Sandawe into Khoisan is at about the same level.  However, the
Hamitic of Nilo-Hamitic is something Greenberg effectively debunked.  Perhaps
this is why many Africanists are bemused at the intensity of the Americanist
reaction to Greenberg's work.

As to Greenberg's alleged absolutism in his claims of relationship, what is
relevant is what the field does with his work, not what he thinks it means.  As
Bill Welmers used to say of G's Niger-Congo, "G hasn't proved that the
languages are genetically related; he's made it inconceivable that they
aren't."

Herb Stahlke
Ball State University