1. Comparative-Historical Method

1. Comparative-Historical Method.

With the languages having evolved with time due to different intercultural influences and historical reasons, and with the scarce, if any, literary monuments, it is difficult to reconstruct the language in its primary form. However, possible with the help of the Comparative-Historical Method.

The method was developed at the dawn of the 19th century when Europeans first found out that Sanskrit (ancient Vedic language of India) had much in common with the modern European languages. The method was first developed and applied to the comparison of languages by Franz Bopp, Rasmusk Rask, Jacob Grimm, Aleksandr Vostokov, Friedrich von Gumboldt, August Schleicher, Karl Verner, Herman Paul. This method is used to corroborate that languages compared are kin languages or not. If they are, the reconstruction of the proto language becomes possible when there are no written monuments. It is done in the following stages:

The method was developed at the dawn of the 19th century when Europeans first found out that Sanskrit (ancient Vedic language of India) had much in common with the modern European languages. The method was first developed and applied to the comparison of languages by Franz Bopp, Rasmusk Rask, Jacob Grimm, Aleksandr Vostokov, Friedrich von Gumboldt, August Schleicher, Karl Verner, Herman Paul. This method is used to corroborate that languages compared are kin languages or not. If they are, the reconstruction of the proto language becomes possible when there are no written monuments. It is done in the following stages:

Comparison of sounds and morphemes in kin languages on the basis of comparison of meaningful units;

• Comparison of sounds and morphemes in kin languages on the basis of comparison of meaningful units;
• Regular correspondence between units compared has to be traced;
• Relative chronological correspondence between the phenomena under comparison has to be present;
• Reconstruction of the Proto form or pattern (archetype).