Yakhontov

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Just a clarification about what I said about Yakhontov.

Yakhontov's work was brought to my attention by Sergei Starostin,
replying to me in the pages of Mother Tongue.  Sergei affirmed
Yakhontov's principle in terms of known cognates in languages known to
be related, but then went on to adduce a further version involving
nothing but perceived resemblances, and to use this against me.  He
seemed to present this second version as though it were the same thing
as the first version, something for which I took him to task at the
time.

I then went looking for a published source for Yakhontov's principle,
and discovered there was none: Yakhontov had never published it.  But
Sergei did publish a summary in his book on Altaic and Japanese, and
somebody who had this book kindly mailed me the relevant passage.  From
this passage, which I did not find totally explicit, I gathered the
impression that Starostin was imputing *both* versions to Yakhontov, and
that's what I said in my posting.

I was then contacted by another Russian linguist who knows Yakhontov
personally, and who assured me that the second version was not
Yakhontov's.  At present, then, I conclude that the second version,
involving only perceived resemblances, is Starostin's own idea, and not
Yakhontov's.

My apologies if I've misled anybody, but I was doing my best to find out
the truth.  That's not easy when the originator doesn't publish his work
and the only published source is both unavailable to me in Brighton and
not very clear anyway.  But I think I've got an accurate account into my
dictionary.


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk