comparative method n ary comparison time ago discussing comparative linguistics question raised bill poser think whether anybody ever claims print binary comparison preferable nary comparison cited one reference time thought might still general interest adduce one come attention attack theory japanese altaic altaic whole janhunen 1992 argues odds finding apparent matches simply chance japanese compared four altaic languages subgroups viz turkic mongolic tungusic korean four times high odds finding spurious matches japanese compared one language specifically korean singled janhunen fair amount work japanese korean comparison ignored altaic words janhunen assumes 5 ary comparison four times likely produce matches purely chance call false positives binary comparison needless say fallacy janhunen juha 1992 das japanische vergleichender sicht journal de la soci finno ougrienne 84 145161