Editing Comparative linguistics (section)

==Pseudolinguistic comparisons==
{{Main|Pseudoscientific language comparison}}
Comparative linguistics includes the study of the historical relationships of languages using the comparative method to search for regular (i.e., recurring) correspondences between the languages' phonology, grammar, and core vocabulary, and through hypothesis testing, which involves examining specific patterns of similarity and difference across languages; some persons with little or no specialization in the field sometimes attempt to establish historical associations between languages by noting similarities between them, in a way that is considered [[pseudoscientific]] by specialists (e.g. spurious comparisons between [[Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]] and languages like [[Wolof language|Wolof]], as proposed by [[Cheikh Anta Diop|Diop]] in the 1960s<ref>Russell G. Schuh (1997) "The Use and Misuse of language in the study of African history", ''Ufahamu'' 25(1):36–81</ref>).

The most common method applied in pseudoscientific language comparisons is to search two or more languages for words that seem similar in their sound and meaning. While similarities of this kind often seem convincing to laypersons, linguistic scientists consider this kind of comparison to be unreliable for two primary reasons. First, the method applied is not well-defined: the criterion of similarity is subjective and thus not subject to [[falsifiability|verification or falsification]], which is contrary to the principles of the scientific method. Second, the large size of all languages' vocabulary and a relatively limited inventory of articulated sounds used by most languages makes it easy to find coincidentally similar words between languages.{{cn|date=October 2024}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Berthele |first1=Raphael |title=Policy recommendations for language learning: Linguists' contributions between scholarly debates and pseudoscience |url=https://euroslajournal.org/articles/10.22599/jesla.50 |journal=Journal of the European Second Language Association |publisher=Journal of the European Second Language Association 3.1 |access-date=October 22, 2024 |date=2019|volume=3 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.22599/jesla.50 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

There are sometimes political or religious reasons for associating languages in ways that some linguists would dispute. For example, it has been suggested that the [[Turanian languages|Turanian]] or [[Ural–Altaic languages|Ural–Altaic language]] group, which relates [[Sami languages|Sami]] and other languages to the [[Mongolian language]], was used to justify [[racism]] towards the Sami in particular.<ref>{{in lang|sv}} [http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d95-nwa/rasII.html Niclas Wahlgren. ''Något om rastänkandet i Sverige.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615133919/http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d95-nwa/rasII.html |date=15 June 2011 }}</ref> There are also strong, albeit [[areal feature|areal]] not [[language family|genetic]], similarities between the [[Uralic languages|Uralic]] and [[Altaic languages|Altaic]] languages which provided an innocent basis for this theory. In 1930s [[Turkey]], some promoted the [[Sun Language Theory]], one that showed that [[Turkic languages]] were close to the original language. Some believers in [[Abrahamic religions]] try to derive their native languages from [[Classical Hebrew]], as [[Herbert W. Armstrong]], a proponent of [[British Israelism]], who said that the word ''British'' comes from Hebrew {{Transliteration|he|brit}} meaning '[[wikt:covenant|covenant]]' and {{Transliteration|he|ish}} meaning 'man', supposedly proving that the British people are the 'covenant people' of God. And [[Lithuania]]n-American [[archaeologist]] [[Marija Gimbutas]] argued during the mid-1900s that Basque is clearly related to the extinct [[Pictish language|Pictish]] and Etruscan languages, in attempt to show that Basque was a remnant of an "[[Old European culture]]".<ref>See Gimbutas, Marija, ''The Living Goddesses'' pp. 122 and 171–175 {{ISBN|0-520-22915-0}}</ref> In the {{Lang|la|Dissertatio de origine gentium Americanarum}} (1625), the Dutch lawyer [[Hugo Grotius]] "proves" that the American Indians ([[Mohawk nation|Mohawk]]s) speak a language ({{Lang|la|lingua Maquaasiorum}}) derived from Scandinavian languages (Grotius was on Sweden's payroll), supporting Swedish colonial pretensions in America. 
The Dutch doctor [[Johannes Goropius Becanus]], in his {{Lang|la|Origines Antverpiana}} (1580) admits {{Lang|la|Quis est enim qui non amet patrium sermonem}} ("Who does not love his fathers' language?"), whilst asserting that Hebrew is derived from Dutch. The Frenchman [[Éloi Johanneau]] claimed in 1818 ({{Lang|fr|Mélanges d'origines étymologiques et de questions grammaticales}}) that the Celtic language is the oldest, and the mother of all others.

In 1759, [[Joseph de Guignes]] theorized ({{Lang|fr|Mémoire dans lequel on prouve que les Chinois sont une colonie égyptienne}}) that the Chinese and Egyptians were related, the former being a colony of the latter. In 1885, [[Edward Tregear]] (''The Aryan Maori'') compared the Maori and "Aryan" languages. {{Interlanguage link multi|Jean Prat (linguist)|fr|3=Jean Prat (linguiste)|lt=Jean Prat}}, in his 1941 {{Lang|fr|Les langues nitales}}, claimed that the Bantu languages of Africa are descended from Latin, coining the French linguistic term {{Lang|fr|nitale}} in doing so. Just as Egyptian is related to Brabantic, following [[Johannes Goropius Becanus|Becanus]] in his ''Hieroglyphica'', still using comparative methods.

The first practitioners of comparative linguistics were not universally acclaimed: upon reading Becanus' book, [[Joseph Justus Scaliger|Scaliger]] wrote, "never did I read greater nonsense", and [[Leibniz]] coined the term ''goropism'' (from [[Goropius]]) to designate a far-sought, ridiculous etymology.

There have also been assertions that humans are descended from non-primate animals, with the use of the voice being the primary basis for comparison. [[Jean-Pierre Brisset]] (in La Grande Nouvelle, around 1900) believed and claimed that humans evolved from frogs through linguistic connections, arguing that the croaking of frogs resembles spoken French. He suggested that the French word logement, meaning 'dwelling,' originated from the word l'eau, which means 'water.'<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tursinaliyevna |first1=Jabborova Zukhra |title=Descriptive And Comparative Linguistics |url=http://ijeais.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/4/IJAPR210402.pdf |publisher=International Journal of Academic Pedagogical Research |access-date=October 22, 2024 |page=5 |date=2021}}</ref>