Latvian [[divi]]

I had listed sound changes for Slavic on WT:ASLA, but Ivan removed those. WT:AGEM still has some. So we should either put them back or find some other place to put it. I am not comfortable with reconstructions being sourced to me personally. I would prefer it if there was a page, like the one above before Ivan removed the information, where a kind of consensus-based set of rules can be made. This is original research, but it's done collectively and peer reviewed by other Wiktionary editors knowledgeable in the field. I feel more comforable with that then just putting it all on my name, because everyone can be wrong, including me. And this also fits in better with the wiki spirit of collective knowledge and understanding.

I would be OK with that, though I'm not sure WK:ASLA is the best place for this kind of information. Still: why were the sound changes removed? Does this go against some Wiktionary policy I'm not aware of?

I think he felt that such information didn't belong on that page, because it was too encyclopedic.

Then maybe the idea of having an Appendix page about PS, PB and PBS where such things as correspondences and claims about how close PB and PBS are could be explicitly made? Something like that would contain the information necessary for being a citable reference (at least here within Wiktionary).

I do like the idea of setting up our own reference body in such a way. It would allow us to "contain" original research in a place where it's visible and accessible to anyone who may have doubts or insights. And perhaps more importantly, to make it able to be discussed if necessary. But I do think that we should limit the scope of what goes there. I don't think it's the place where sound laws on the level of Grimm's law should be developed, we should restrict it to small things and individual sound changes should probably be backed by research elsewhere.

I agree in principle with the limitations (to make things easier to handle), though I'm not in principle against 'grander', Grimm's-law stuff being first suggested here (why not? as long as the stuff is well done...). Should this become an official suggestion in one of the venues in the community portal?

Yes, if you want to. My main objection with really big stuff is that it is the kind of area where even professional linguists get things very wrong, so that makes it even more likely for amateurs to miss things. I don't have any professional schooling in linguistics, just a lot of curiosity that made me want to look for things and learn more. So I know a bit I think but what I know is not at a professional level and I don't think it is for anyone else here either. The limitations are mainly there to protect ourselves, Wiktionary and its users from our own incompetence. :P

I am a professional linguist, though not an Indo-Europeanist (I work on South American indigenous languages). But one of the things I've learned is to stick to logics and good arguments, because (a) big stars with famous diplomas often think their fame is all their need to justify something, and (b) non-big-stars, without any diplomas, surprisingly often contribute really intelligent, insightful ideas that deserve recognition. (The opposite can happen too, of course, but my field -- which is small -- has more than its share of big stars who want to be treated like kings... so I tend to be partial in favor of the underdog, as it were.)

I think I'll start a discussion about this at, say, the beer parlor. Since it's a bit late tonight and I still want to add a bunch of form-of pages, I'll do it tomorrow rather than today. Who knows? The idea might take root and bear fruit...