Darwin-L Message Log 4:28 (December 1993)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

<4:28>From GA3704@SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU  Thu Dec  9 11:57:14 1993

Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 10:55:10 CST
From: "Margaret E. Winters" <GA3704@SIUCVMB.SIU.EDU>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: extinction

Diane Nelson asks nice questions in her posting.  As far as the
Latin kind of extinction, the line is extremely fuzzy from the
point of view of historical linguistics.  There is a moderate
literature on the Romance languages specifically, with various
opinions as to when Latin "died".  I recommend anything by
Roger Wright to begin with. Questions of orthography and
interpretation of texts enter crucially into this question,
and Wright sets forth the issues and his responses elegantly.

Apropos of the fact that Ms. Nelson is at Edinburgh, I will be
there in the linguistics department as a postdoc for the spring,
starting in January, and have been meaning to ask if anyone
on the list is there.  I now have one answer and am curious
to know if there are others.

           Best,
           Margaret Winters
           <ga3704@siucvmb.siu.edu>