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In:Historical Linguistics 2023: Selected papers from the 26th International Conference on Historical Linguistics,Heidelberg, 4-8 September 2023
Edited by Jadranka Gvozdanović
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 371] 2026
► pp. 13–29

The Comparative Method does not need decolonization

 | Ghent University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Against current popular opinion on knowledge production in the social and human sciences, this essay argues that the Comparative Method in historical linguistics does not require decolonization, also not when applied to languages spoken in regions of the world once subjected to European imperialism. In Africa, the reconstruction of Proto-Bantu is one of greatest accomplishments of the Comparative Method. In line with its pre-colonial intellectual roots in German Romanticism, the Comparative Method has been of key importance for retrieving the deep history of languages and societies without long-standing written traditions world-wide. Moreover, the Comparative Method starts out from language divergence and language-internal change following the family tree model, but it also acknowledges the role of contact and multilingualism in language evolution. It has even been indispensable in detecting deep-time contact events in the absence of historical records. To rescue the Comparative Method from attempts to deconstruct it, this essay advocates for its careful and knowledgeable application as an emancipatory and decolonial tool essential for gaining a better understanding of Africa’s deep past and its contributions to human history. By rejecting the universality of the Comparative Method, decolonizers will ultimately deny history to those they intend to liberate.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Comparative Method through the lens of decolonization thought
  • 3.On the origins of the Comparative Method in Europe
  • 4.On the origins and growth of the CM in Bantu-speaking Africa
  • 5.On the universality of the Comparative Method
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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