The UPenn IE Tree REVEALED!

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/23/99 4:04:49 PM, Brian M. Scott wrote:

<<This is the assumption underlying the notion of a perfect phylogeny,
which you can find described at
<http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~histling/home.html>.  Quite detailed
information is available in the papers available there.>>

Wow.  Giving that URL is a great service to this list and I personally can't
thank you enough.  It sure takes the guesswork out of things.

Anybody interested in this discussion will find the "UPenn tree" there right
from the horse's mouth. (Rather through some other appendage.)  And it is
really worth a look as it is very relevant to the subject matter of this list.

One of the first amazing facts you are greeted with is:

<<Ever wonder where Old English fell in the Indo-European tree? Our latest
results suggest that it falls somewhere within the Satem core! >>

I guess after 200 years (or so) there are some new things to learn about IE.

<<You are mistaken: it was given no dates, even relative ones. >>

Well, of course, I was going by what Sean Crist wrote.

[ Moderator's interjection:
  On Thu, 2 Sep 1999, Mr. Crist wrote the following:

  >-Dates of attestation were not taken into consideration at all when
  >producing the unrooted phylogeny.  It was produced strictly on the basis
  >of the characteristics of the languages without regard to dating.  _After_
  >this tree had been produced, the team did go on to produce a version of
  >the tree showing the earliest date of attestation for each language
  >against the branchings they had already worked out; it puts certain
  >constraints on when the posited branchings could have happened.

  So the tree which was presented *on this list* had no dates in it, as was
  stated on more than one occasion.
  --rma ]

<<A character is a property on which languages can differ; the centum/satem
character, for instance,...>>

Yes on first look I see that.  So in the basic data, the term "innovations"
may be inappropriate.  Don't know why that doesn't surprise me.

Once again, thank you for coming down from the mountain with the tablets.

Regards,
Steve Long