Cognate maximization versus cognate minimization: in search of a "golden middle" for Altaic etymology

The paper presents a brief evaluation of the current state of affairs in the field of comparative Altaic linguistics, claiming that the relative lack of progress over the past 15 years is largely due to the conflicting opposing strategies of "cognate maximization" and "cognate minimization", respectively adopted by proponents and opponents of the hypothesis, neither of which is capable to adequately address the complexity of the issue. It is suggested that, in order to advance the Altaic hypothesis further, a "golden middle strategy" has to be worked out, and that one of the steps towards it could consist in embracing the methodology of onomasiological reconstruction, which, in addition to regularity of phonetic correspondences, places much more emphasis on the semantic and distributional properties of potential cognates and regards the etymological corpus as a systematic network rather than a collection of random individual comparanda. Although all the problematic issues and proposed solutions are discussed with examples from comparative Altaic data, they are equally relevant to most other hypotheses of long-distance relationship

Chinese basic lexicon from a diachronic perspective: implications for lexicostatistics and glottochronology

Starostin George. Chinese basic lexicon from a diachronic perspective: implications for lexicostatistics and glottochronology / George Starostin// Вопросы языкового родства. - 2019. - № 2 (17). - С. 153-176

Restoring “Nile-Nubian”: How to Balance Lexicostatistics and Etymology in Historical Research on Nubian Languages

The paper offers a critical analysis of the proposal to dismantle the genetic unity of the so-called Nile-Nubian languages by positioning one of its former constituents, the Nobiin language, as the earliest oshoot from the Common Nubian stem. Combining straightforward lexicostatistical methodology with more scrupulous etymological analysis of the material, I argue that the evidence in favor of the hypothesis that Nobiin is the earliest offshoot may and, in fact, should rather be interpreted as evidence for a strong lexical substrate in Nobiin, accounting for its accelerated rate of change in comparison to the closely related Kenuzi–Dongolawi (Mattokki–Andaandi) cluster

Restoring “Nile-Nubian”: How to Balance Lexicostatistics and Etymology in Historical Research on Nubian Languages

The paper offers a critical analysis of the proposal to dismantle the genetic unity of the so-called Nile-Nubian languages by positioning one of its former constituents, the Nobiin language, as the earliest oshoot from the Common Nubian stem. Combining straightforward lexicostatistical methodology with more scrupulous etymological analysis of the material, I argue that the evidence in favor of the hypothesis that Nobiin is the earliest offshoot may and, in fact, should rather be interpreted as evidence for a strong lexical substrate in Nobiin, accounting for its accelerated rate of change in comparison to the closely related Kenuzi–Dongolawi (Mattokki–Andaandi) cluster

[Рецензия]

Starostin George. [Рецензия] [Электронный ресурс] / George Starostin// Вопросы языкового родства. - 2014. - № 12. - С. 149-153. - (Вестник РГГУ : научный журнал. Серия "Филологические науки. Языкознание" ; № 16 : ). - ил

[Рецензия]

Starostin George. [Рецензия] [Электронный ресурс] / George Starostin// Вопросы языкового родства. - 2014. - № 12. - С. 149-153. - (Вестник РГГУ : научный журнал. Серия "Филологические науки. Языкознание" ; № 16 : ). - ил

Macro-comparative linguistics in the 21st century: state of the art and perspectives

Starostin George. Macro-comparative linguistics in the 21st century: state of the art and perspectives [Электронный ресурс] / George Starostin// Вопросы языкового родства. - 2014. - № 11. - С. 1-12. - (Вестник РГГУ : научный журнал. Серия "Филологические науки. Языкознание" ; № 5 (127)). - ил