Lecture | Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars
A ruki mistake? From aporia to apriorism
- Date
- Friday 17 February 2023
- Time
- Series
- Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 002
Abstract
The so-called "ruki law" remains one of the clearest arguments in favour of a "satem" branch of Indo-European, uniting in particular Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic. However, the validity of this law for Baltic specifically has not always been generally accepted, and was in fact denied by most for the first half of the twentieth century. This changed when a few articles in the 1960s, as Villanueva put it, made it "patently clear" that the law did in fact apply here. Yet behind this patent clarity remain a whole host of unresolved contradictions. In this talk, I will look again at the evidence, try to figure out how we got to the current consensus, and offer an alternative way out.