Dynamic Correspondences: An Object-Oriented Approach to Tracking Sound Reconstructions

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a research project that experiments with crosstabulation in aiding phonemic reconstruction. Data from the Tupi stock was used, and three tests were conducted in order to determine the efficacy of this application: the confirmation and challenging of a previously established reconstruction in the family; testing a new reconstruction generated by our model; and testing the upper limit of simultaneous, multiple correspondences across several languages. Our conclusion is that the use of cross tabulations (implemented within a database as pivot tables) offers an innovative and effective tool in comparative study and sound reconstruction.