Re: Linguistic and Biological Systematics

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/4/01 11:11:02 AM EST, tmk@dinosauricon.com writes:

<< Not really; a language is more comparable to a species, and a language
 family comparable to a clade. Romance still exists, but Latin doesn't
 (except in academia and religion), just as _Dinosauria_ still exists, but
 the ancestral dinosaur species doesn't. >>

I'll buy this as soon as someone will explain how to tell when one species 
has changed/is changing into another (descendant) species. To rephrase 
cladistically, would Latin cease to exist once another language has branched 
off from it? Does ancient Greek no longer exist, or is it after all the same 
species as modern Greek?