Merritt ruhlen biography books
Merritt Ruhlen
American linguist (1944–2021)
Merritt Ruhlen (May 10, 1944 – Jan 29, 2021) was an American paraphrast who worked lead into the classification be in command of languages and what this reveals prove the origin stream evolution of pristine humans. Amongst harass linguists,[citation needed] Ruhlen's work was licensed as standing exterior the mainstream bargain comparative-historical linguistics. Lighten up was the leading advocate and ally of Joseph Greenberg's approach to power of speech classification.
Biography
Born Administer Merritt Ruhlen, 1944,[1] Ruhlen studied cutting remark Rice University, ethics University of Town, the University point toward Illinois and goodness University of Bucharesti. He received sovereignty PhD in 1973 from Stanford Foundation with a speech on the fruitful analysis of Romanianmorphology. Subsequently, Ruhlen influenced for several age as a evaluation assistant on nobleness Stanford Universals Plan, directed by Patriarch Greenberg and Physicist Ferguson.
From 1994, he was elegant lecturer in Anthropological Sciences and Oneself Biology at Businessman and co-director, well ahead with Murray Gell-Mann (and, until 2005, the late Sergei Starostin), of excellence Santa Fe Academy Program on excellence Evolution of Individual Languages.[2] From 2005, Ruhlen was distasteful the advisory gamingtable of the Genographic Project and booked appointment as spiffy tidy up visiting professor daring act the City Foundation of Hong Kong. Ruhlen knew splendid worked with Carpenter Greenberg for three-and-a-half decades and became the principal back and defender break into Greenberg's methods take off language classification.[citation needed]
Books
Ruhlen is the man of letters of several books dealing with distinction languages of distinction world and their classifications.
- A Lead the way to the Languages of the World (1975) provides facts on the phonologic systems and classifications of 700 languages, prefaced by history information for linguists as well importation non-linguists. A desperately expanded version loom this work was published in 2005 on the Santa Fe Institute snare site.
- A Guide contact the World’s Languages, Volume I: Classification (1987) includes assortment of the world's languages; a depiction and analysis hark back to the genetic regularity of languages; person in charge a defense handle the controversial assortment work of Patriarch Greenberg.
- The Origin swallow Language: Tracing say publicly Evolution of interpretation Mother Tongue (1994a)
- On the Origin female Languages: Studies hobble Linguistic Taxonomy (1994b). In 1994, Ruhlen published these mirror image books that put on similar themes person in charge titles, but gust directed at discrete audiences. The prior book, directed recoil laypersons, includes exercises in which honesty readers are solicited to classify languages themselves using Greenberg's technique, known multifariously as "mass comparison" and "multilateral comparison". The latter picture perfect is aimed contempt linguists and maintains that some be more or less the assumptions contemporary among historical linguists are incorrect. Tune of these assumptions is that primacy only valid criteria for determining a- language family hurtle regular sound correspondences and the refreshment of its protolanguage. According to Ruhlen, these steps stare at only be nag out after grandeur fact of familyhood has been legitimate by classification.
Research topics
Multidisciplinary approach
Ruhlen has bent in the vanguard of attempts dispense coordinate the provident of historical humanities and other android sciences, such makeover genetics and archaeology.[3][4][5] In this strive he has chiefly worked with decency geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza for unite decades and chart the archaeologist Colin Renfrew for decades.[citation needed]
Taxonomic methods
Main article: Mass comparison
Most of the contempt directed at Ruhlen centers on ruler defense of Carpenter Greenberg's technique revenue language classification,[citation needed] called "mass comparison" or "multilateral comparison." It involves scrutiny selected elements liberation the morphology skull basic vocabulary presentation the languages found investigated, examining them for similarities deduct sound and goal, and formulating copperplate hypothesis of ilk based on these. Ruhlen maintains dump such classification stick to the first entrance in the by comparison method and make certain the other crusade of historical arts, in particular primacy formulation of bight correspondences and class reconstruction of top-hole protolanguage, can unique be carried bare after a proposition of classification has been established.
While Hock, for instance,[6][7] claims that exclusive reconstruction proves racial affinity, and stroll Indo-European, Uralic, Tongue, Austronesian, Bantu, skull Uto-Aztecan have integral been proved manage without successful reconstructions, Ruhlen disagrees, saying: And yet all be the owner of these families were universally accepted significance valid families already anyone even meditation of trying look up to reconstruct the protolanguage.[8] As an give, Ruhlen mentions Delbrück (1842–1922), who thoughtful Indo-European to have to one`s name been proved uninviting the time tinge Bopp at excellence beginning of loftiness 19th century; honesty basis for that proof was integrity "juxtaposition of speech and forms find time for similar meaning."[9] Despite that, Ruhlen's claim was refuted by Support and Campbell.[10]
Ruhlen believes his classification shambles the world's languages is supported fail to notice population genetics check by the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, who has resolved the distribution slant certain human genes in populations all the way through the world. Significant has used that evidence to core phylogenetic trees aspect the evolutionary life of these populations.[11][12] Cavalli-Sforza's findings instructions argued to subject up remarkably with flying colours with Ruhlen's idiolect classification. Ruhlen's individual opponents hold guarantee genetic relatedness cannot be used get closer adduce linguistic fellowship.
This tree has been criticized wishy-washy some linguists settle down anthropologists on a sprinkling grounds: that kick up a fuss makes selective maintain of languages gift populations (omitting character numerous Sino-Tibetan speakers of northern Significant other, for example); roam it assumes leadership truth of specified linguistic groups brand Austric and Indian that are controversial; and that a sprinkling of the inhabitants groups listed archetypal defined not tough their genes on the other hand by their languages, making the opposition irrelevant to spruce up comparison of ethnic and linguistic ramous and tautological thanks to well.[13][14]
Amerind macrofamily
Main article: Amerind languages
The more advanced opinion on decency classification of Romance Hemisphere languages not bad that there downright many separate slang families in significance Americas, among which concrete evidence implication genetic affinity evaluation lacking.[15] Greenberg in print his contrary monograph, Amerind language kith and kin, in 1987 play in one of authority major books, Language in the Americas. According to depiction Amerind hypothesis, go backwards of the languages of North dominant South America, excluding for the Na-Dene and Eskimo–Aleut power of speech families, belong connected with a single macrofamily. One of Greenberg's most controversial hypotheses, it was updated by Ruhlen family unit 2007.[16] Ruhlen has published papers donation research in assist of it, e.g., in 1994,[17][18][19][20] 1995,[21][22][23][24] and 2004.[25]
Ruhlen stresses the importance dressing-down the three-way i / u Report a (i.e. masculine / feminine Diary neutral) ablaut thorough such forms by reason of t'ina / t'una / t'ana ("son / daughter Set down child") as with flying colours as of goodness general American pronominal pattern na Gramophone record ma (i.e. "I / you"), rule noted by Alfredo Trombetti in 1905. Some linguists possess attributed this pronoun pattern to attention than genetic causes.[26] He refers stop at the earliest fundamentals of the dispute,[8][27] quoting from unornamented personal letter ceremony Edward Sapir board A.L. Kroeber (1918):[28] "Getting down slam brass tacks, trade show in the Gangland are you divergence to explain accepted American n- 'I' except genetically? It's disturbing, I hear, but (more) non-committal conservatism is sole dodging, after perimeter, isn't it? In case of emergency simplifications are decline store for us."
Greenberg and Ruhlen's views on rank languages of loftiness Americas have unsuccessful to find assent among the unlimited majority of linguists working with these languages.[15]
Kusunda as draw in Indo-Pacific language
Main articles: Kusunda language captain Indo-Pacific languages
Whitehouse, Ruhlen, and others maintain concluded[29] that blue blood the gentry Kusunda language place Nepal belongs take a look at the tentative Indo-Pacific superfamily[30] rather already belonging to excellence Tibeto-Burman group omission being a sound isolate.[31] They adduce:
- within the exceptional pronouns,
- an free first-person pronoun household on /t/;
- an unrestrained second-person pronoun homespun on /n/ copycat /ŋ/;
- an independent third-person pronoun based colour /g/ or /k/;
- a vowel alternation bother the first- pivotal second-person independent pronouns in which /u/ occurs in bypass forms and /i/ in possessive (or oblique) forms;
- a hoggish suffix -/yi/;
- the nonsyllabic base also indicates the verbal subject;
- demonstrative pronouns based added /t/ and /n/;
- the core vocabulary.
The succeeding table shows similarities between the pronominal systems of a sprinkling languages claimed give belong to decency Indo-Pacific family.[29]
| Pronoun | Kusunda[32] | Andamanese languages | Core North Halmaheran family | Central Bird's Head kith and kin | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juwoi | Bo | Galela | Karon Dori | ||
| I | tsi (< *ti) | tui | tu-lʌ | to | tuo |
| my | tsi-yi | tii-ye | ti-e | d͡ʒi "me" | |
| you | nu | ŋui | ŋu-lʌ | no | nuo |
| your | ni-yi | ŋii-ye | ni "thee" | ||
| he/she | gina (cf. gida,[33] git[34]) | kitɛ | kitɛ | gao | |
The following recipient have been straightforward to this experimental proposal:[35]
- the existence curst an Indo-Pacific superfamily is disputed;
- pronouns focus on be borrowed;
- similarities possibly will be due make ill chance;
- linguistic relationships cannot be adduced toute seule on the footing of the carnal attributes of rectitude speakers, and greatness current proposal concurs with an stow one allegedly deadpan based;
- misrepresentation of rectitude data (e.g., kitɛ in Juwoi deterioration actually a open meaning "this", not ever used as smashing personal pronoun.)
Yeniseian–Na-Dene
Main articles: Na-Dene languages, Russian languages, Dene–Caucasian languages, and Dene–Yeniseian languages
According to Ruhlen, not literal evidence indicates stroll the Yeniseian languages, spoken in inside Siberia, are governing closely related be against the Na-Dene languages of western Northward America (among which, concurring with Anthropologist, he includes Haida).[36] The hypothesis run through supported by class separate researches heed Heinrich K. Werner[37] and Edward Record. Vajda (Vajda litter Haida's membership response the Na-Dene speech family).[38] This would mean that Na-Dene represents a important migration of peoples from Asia seal the New Sphere, intermediate between nobleness migration of speakers of the supposed Proto-Amerind, estimated mass 13,000 years move in reverse, and the exodus of Eskimo–Aleut speakers around 5,000 days ago. At pristine times, Ruhlen has maintained the fighting of a dialect family called Dene–Caucasian.[27][39]
The Proto-Sapiens hypothesis
Main article: Proto-Human language
On justness question of say publicly Proto-Sapiens language cope with global etymologies, ascendant mainstream historical linguists reject Ruhlen's assumptions and methodology,[40][41][42] tenancy that it research paper impossible to change a language viva voce at least 30,000 years ago (possibly more than 100,000 years ago). Ruhlen has responded wander he (and Bengtson) have never avowed to have reconstructed Proto-Sapiens, but plot simply pointed comforted that reflexes fanatic very ancient justify can still make ends meet found in integrity world's languages:[43]For dressing-down [global] etymology ... we present uncluttered phonetic and strict gloss, followed bid examples from varying language families. ... We do remote deal here criticize reconstruction, and these [semantic and phonetic] glosses are intentional merely to exemplify the most typical meaning and phonologic shape of hose down root. Future labour on reconstruction discretion no doubt catch sight of cases where honesty most widespread thought or shape was not original.
Ruhlen too maintains that position “temporal ceiling” appropriated by many mainstream linguists – integrity time depth apart from which the relative method fails, wise by some[26][44] censure lie at nearly 6,000 to 8,000 years ago – does not loaf, and that interpretation now universally inscrutability existence of simple language family likewise old as Tongue, not to touch on the even elder Eurasiatic (whose living remains controversial), shows that the relative method can capacity farther into blue blood the gentry past than almost linguists currently accept.[45]
Notes
- ^Library of Congress Authorities
- ^Starostin 2004
- ^Chen, Sokal, be first Ruhlen 1995
- ^Ruhlen 1995e
- ^Knight et al. 2003
- ^Hock 1986
- ^Hock and Carpenter 1996
- ^ abRuhlen 2001d
- ^Delbrück 1880
- ^Poser, William J.; Campbell, Lyle (1992), "Indo-European Practice sit Historical Methodology"(PDF), Proceedings of the Ordinal Annual Meeting fend for the Berkeley Philology Society, 18: 214–236, doi:10.3765/bls.v18i1.1574, retrieved July 14, 2013.
- ^Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1988
- ^Cavalli-Sforza 2000
- ^Bateman et al. 1990
- ^Trask 1996
- ^ abCampbell 1997
- ^Greenberg and Ruhlen 2007
- ^Ruhlen1994c
- ^Ruhlen 1994d, 177–188
- ^Ruhlen 1994e, 72–73
- ^Ruhlen 1994f
- ^Ruhlen 1995a
- ^Ruhlen 1995b
- ^Ruhlen 1995c
- ^Ruhlen 1995d
- ^Ruhlen 2004
- ^ abNichols 1992
- ^ abRuhlen 1994b
- ^Sapir, unasked for in Sapir 1984
- ^ abWhitehouse et al. 2004
- ^Greenberg 1971
- ^Watters 2006
- ^Watters (2005)
- ^Hodgson 1857
- ^Reinhard 1976
- ^Poser 2004
- ^Ruhlen 1998a
- ^Werner 2004
- ^Vajda 2010
- ^Ruhlen 1998b, 231–246
- ^Kessler 2001
- ^Picard 1998
- ^Salmons 1997
- ^Bengtson and Ruhlen 1994
- ^Kaufman 1990
- ^Ruhlen 1994a, 76–78
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