A Preliminary Field Guide to Linguists, Part Two

A Preliminary Field Guide to Linguists, Part Two; by Athanasious Schadenpoodle; From Volume CL, Number 2, of Speculative Grammarian, April 2005. — The previous installment, dealing with Neoplatonicus and Functionalisticus, comprised a brief discussion of the less problematic genera in the family--less problematic in the sense that their grouping is not contested among those working in this area. This section will deal with two groups whose taxonomic status is a matter of quite some debate; to a large extent, the groupings presented should be taken as tentative, and done largely for the sake of organized presentation (cf. Gnibbes 1998 and Czechzindemeyl 1999 for representative positions on grouping of these species). There is wide consensus that all linguistica families are descended from a single precursor species, linguistica saussurii, but the exact relations among branches are obscure. While isolated members of all of the daughter species share significant similarities to the parent saussurii (e.g., a diet supplemented by ethanol), none of the groups do so consistently. (Read by Keith Slater.)