Excerpts from Benedict (1991), a paper on the proposed Austric macro-family. See if you can work out his opinion of this proposal.
The writer, when not busy with actual (Sino-Tibetan [ST], Austro-Tai [AT]) rather than fantasied language stocks, has from time to time given some consideration to the basic question here…
Shorto proposed a number of new AN/MK cognate sets, falling for the most part in what the writer termed the ketketbongbong class, involving lexical areas well outside 'core' vocabulary, with a striking attenuation or gap in this key aspect. As summed up by Benedict (1976b: 106):
…the point to be stressed is that a score of ketketbongbong do not one language stock make, since correspondances of this kind have significant value for comparative purposes only when found in association with a corpus of core vocabulary items.
The final clause was italicised lest the point be overlooked, as apparently has occured in the more recent paper by Diffloth (1985).
Quite novel, however, is [Diffloth's] attack upon what he labels 'Swadesh's "basic" notins', which is no less than a frontal assault upon the whole idea of utilising basic or 'core' vocabulary in comparative work. Granted a certain feeling of frustration on his part in being unable to uncover 'core' AN/MK cognate sets, one can hardly folow him in this rash line of thinking. After pointing out that given items of 'core' type can on occasion be replaced through factors such as 'taboo or euphemistic passe-passe', he makes the following summary statement:
Over the millennia, the recurrence of factors like the above [cit. supra] could easily wipe out 100 such 'basic words', or even 200 [i.e. both the standard Swadesh-type word lists], while protecting for us many hidden gems, such as 'to whittle bamboo strips' or 'scruff', not to mention 'smegma' and the like. Benedict may detest it, but the Austric hypothesis is still very much alive. (Diffloth 1985)
The writer does not 'detest' Austric; in fact, as an old suporter of the hypothesis he must admit to a certain sentimental attachment to it and a sadness at its demise. He must confess, however, that he is dismayed at the thought of a proto-language with a corpus of reconstructed roots made up exclusively of 'scruff', 'smegma', and the like.
