Lesson 3: the comparative method

th
is regular; why are the other forms (
frader, modor
) missing? 
Why does Anglo-Saxon show, instead of "
father
", 
fader
: medial 
d
instead of medial 
th
?
Verner pointed out that in Sanskrit the accents in the words for “father”, 
“mother” and “brother” fell as follows: 
pitdr, matdr, bhrdtar
. In the first two words 
the accent comes 
after
the 
t
; in 
bhrdtar
it comes 
before
. The developement of 
bhrdtar
was therefore regular: 
t
shifted to 
th
(Anglo-Saxon brothor, English brother). In cases 
where the accent occurred 
after
the
 t
, however, a further shifting took place; the 
t
became 
d
instead of 
th
, giving the Anglo-Saxon 
fader
and 
modor
. Verner’s Law 
explained other peculiarities of Anglo-Saxon phonetics and grammar.
Russian linguists should also be mentioned among the founders of comparative 
linguistics.
As early as the middle of the 18th century, the great Russian scientist M. V. 
Lomonosov (1711-1765) started on a comparative and historical study of languages.
He understood which languages constituted the Slavonic group and established 
close ties between Baltic and Slavonic languages, assuming a common origin
between them. It is interesting to point out that Lomonosov proved the existence of 
genetic ties between Baltic and Slavonic languages by comparing' not only words, but 
also grammatical forms.
Lomonosov distinguished between "related" and "non-related" languages. In his 
rough notes for his Russian Grammar. an interesting diagram was found containing the 
numerals "one" to "ten" in related languages-Russian, Greek, Latin and German, on the 
one hand, and in non-related languages-Finnish, Mexican, Chinese, on the other. In 
drawing up this chart Lomonosov undoubtedly had in mind the original, "related", 
unity of Indo-European languages which he counterposed to "non-related" languages. 
The numerals used by Lomonosov are quite reliable from an etymological point of 
view.
There is an important concept of comparative linguistics in Lomonosov's book, 
e.g., he claimed that all related languages had a common source, and the process of 
their development took thousands of years.
Although he did not use the methods of comparative linguistics in his works, 
Lomonosov Nevertheless created a basis for further investigations in this field in 
Russia. Russian scientists began to get interested in the comparative study of 
languages, and the academician P. S. Pall as edited a glossary of 285 words in two 
hundred languages of Europe and Asia in 1786 at the request of Empress Catherine.
Russian linguistics in the early 19th century is linked with the name of A. C. 
Vost6kov (1781-1864), who tried to show the various points of contact between related 
languages. Vostokov's famous paper Some Considerations on Slavonic was published 
in 1820 under the auspices of the Moscow Society of Russian Philology Lovers. In this 
article Vostokov set out the chronology of specimens of Old Church manuscripts, and 
showed their difference from Old Russian. Beside this, he cleared up the problem of 
the so-called juses and showed their relationship to the Polish nasals.

---

As we have said, the phonetic correspondences revealed by Rask and Grimm 
became the foundation of the comparative phonetics of Indo-European languages.
But Vostokov's definition of the sound meaning of the Slavonic juses was no 
Less important a discovery. He demonstrated that these juses were sounds dating from 
the period of common Slavonic languages. Vostokov's theory of the common origin of 
all Slavonic languages and the possibility of reconstructing all the languages of this 
group was not clearly stated and remained a mere hypothesis.
Vostokov's merit is that he was the first scholar in the history of linguistics to 
show phonetic regularity in the sounds of related languages, anticipating Rask and 
Grimm.
A great contribution to comparative linguistics in Russia was made by 
F.I.Buslaev (1818-1897), professor at the Moscow University, where he lectured on 
comparative grammar. But his lectures on the history of the Russian language were 
more interesting and valuable, as they were based on independent investigations of 
specimens of Old Russian written language and folk-lore.
Buslaev discussed the problems of comparative linguistics in connection with 
the history of Russian in his first book