Latin

Divergence-time estimation in Indo-European: The case of Latin

Divergence-time estimation is one of the most important endeavors in historical linguistics. Its importance is matched only by its difficulty. As Bayesian methods of divergence-time estimation have become more common over the past two decades, a …

From phonology to phylogeny

Linguistic phylogenies are typically inferred on the basis of lexical cognate relationships (e.g.,Bouckaert et al. 2012, Chang et al. 2015, Sagart et al. 2019). Despite the predominance of thispractice, it suffers from well-known drawbacks. First, it …

Fossilized birth-death models and the diversification of Latin

Divergence-time estimation in Indo-European

Toward a non-teleological account of demonstrative reinforcement

It has long been debated whether morphosyntactic change is teleological. Jespersen (1917:4), for instance, maintained that emphatic negative constructions are created in response to the weakening of older negative adverbs. Others have argued that …

Review of L. Danckaert, The development of Latin clause structure: A study of the extended verb phrase (Oxford 2017)

Ennius Annales 550 Sk (= 537 V2) and the history of Lat. atque

Ennius 550 Sk (atque atque accedit muros Romana iuventus, ‘The Roman youth atque atque advanced against the walls’) has long puzzled scholars on account of what appear to be side-by-side tokens of the conjunction atque ‘and’. …

nebulosus

nedum

renosco