Like all ancient historians , those of us who deal with the history ancient languages are dependent on chance discoveries for the data which we work . We are faced with enormous gaps in the historical record and we compensate for them by making simplifying assumptions assumptions that favor uniformity over variation . For example , when attempt to date Aramaic sound changes , we conveniently assume evidence gathered in places where it is plentiful ( say , Egypt ) is applicable to places where it is not ( say , Mesopotamia ) . In other words , we assume that a change attested in several regions occurred in all of them at roug the same time and in roughly the same way . In addition , we assume all of the consonants ( belonging to a well-defined class and ) affected b regular phonetic change were affected at the same time . ' These examples of what Moshe Bar-Asher has called " the preconception uniformity " . Such assumptions are rarely articulated , let alone debated ; they part of a ...
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