Talk:Tsimshianic languages
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[edit] My edit
- "Theory" and "hypothesis" are not the same, and Penutian is not a theory (it's far too small for that).
- Science does not and cannot prove, only disprove, so to ask for proof is… you know what I mean. :-)
- I merged the last two paragraphs because the last simply repeated information from the 2nd-to-last.
- I have left the links to "Tsimshian" and "Coast Tsimshian". However, they both lead to "Tsimshian", which is an article on the people, not on the language(s). That should be changed.
- Also… should Dunn's paper really be mentioned? The consonant mergers he assumes are a bit too convenient to be convincing, the semantic leeway he allows for supposed cognates is very large, he doesn't seem to have understood the PIE laryngeals, vocabulary is more, not less, easily borrowed than morphology, there are thoroughly weird sound correspondences (Dunn calls them "intriguing") between /q/ and /s/ and between /r/ and /l/ and /s/, and so on. David Marjanović 19:39, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
==== The first paragraph is confusing as to the difference between "Tsimshian" and "Tsimshianic". The Tsimshianic "lects" are spoken by 3 different ethnic groups (even though they have many resemblances in language and culture) and "ethnic Tsimshian" should be reserved for the people who actually call themselves Tsimshian - that is, the speakers of "Coast" and "Southern" Tsimshian. The Nisga'a (on the Nass River) and Gitksan (in the Upper Skeena area) do not consider themselves Tsimshian.
I did not suggest an edit, because I am not sure of exactly what group of people is included in the 750 reported speakers. Perhaps the history of this page provides more specific information?
The various pages on this group of people and languages (and others) should be consolidated to make sure that they do not contradict each other. See also my comments under "Tsimshian mythology".
I concur with the previous comment about Dunn's paper, which is being given undue prominence given its manifold factual and methodological errors.
Penutgirl 02:08, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
