Semantic clustering technique in South Asian dictionary

[mhcrxlc at dir.mcc.ac.uk]

   Dr. S. Kalyanaraman writes:

>     I believe, that it is not necessary to establish 'ancestry' for a
>word. If
>     it is found across scores of languages spread across vast distances,
>and
>     authenticated in very, very ancient literary texts and epigraphs, it
>does
>     not really matter which phonetic variant came first, despite
>Mayrhoffer and
>     Burrow/Emeneau disagreeing. What is more important are the 'images'
>
>     associated with or evoked by the phonemic variants of a
>language-family.

The problem with this is that we know it is wrong for European languages
where we have much more historical data. So rather the opposite is the
case. If we cannot establish ancestry then we have little to rely on.

Lance Cousins

MANCHESTER, UK
Telephone (UK): 0161 434 3646