Researcher investigates undocumented prehistoric languages through irregularities in current languages
Language can be a time machine—we can learn from ancient texts how our ancestors interacted with the world around them. But can language also teach us something about people whose language has been lost? Ph.D. candidate Anthony Jakob investigated whether the languages of prehistoric populations left traces in Lithuanian and Latvian.
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Interesting. I was hoping to find more information than this pretty short article, but it looks like there isn't anything yet. His dissertation will apparently be posted online at some point though. "A History of East Baltic through Language Contact" is the title in case anyone is curious.
Needs a name.
I propose Forensic Linguistics.
(But it's probably already been taken)