Do languages originate and become extinct at constant rates?
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Eric W. Holman
Abstract
The shape of phylogenetic trees of language families is used to test the null hypothesis that languages throughout a family originate and go extinct at constant rates. Trees constructed either by hand or by computer prove to be more unbalanced than predicted, with many languages on some branches and few on others. The observed levels of imbalance are not explainable by errors in the trees or by the population sizes or geographic density of the languages. The results suggest changes in rates of origination or extinction on a time scale shorter than the time depth of currently recognized families.
Abstract
The shape of phylogenetic trees of language families is used to test the null hypothesis that languages throughout a family originate and go extinct at constant rates. Trees constructed either by hand or by computer prove to be more unbalanced than predicted, with many languages on some branches and few on others. The observed levels of imbalance are not explainable by errors in the trees or by the population sizes or geographic density of the languages. The results suggest changes in rates of origination or extinction on a time scale shorter than the time depth of currently recognized families.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Swadesh’s life and place in linguistics 1
- A full-scale test of the language farming dispersal hypothesis 7
- Do languages originate and become extinct at constant rates? 23
- Borrowability and the notion of basic vocabulary 35
- Homelands of the world’s language families 57
- On using qualitative lexicostatistics to illuminate language history 87
- Beyond lexicostatistics 113
- Phonetic comparison, varieties, and networks 139
- A stochastic local search approach to language tree reconstruction 155
- Author index 173
- Index of languages and language groups 177
- Subject index 181
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Swadesh’s life and place in linguistics 1
- A full-scale test of the language farming dispersal hypothesis 7
- Do languages originate and become extinct at constant rates? 23
- Borrowability and the notion of basic vocabulary 35
- Homelands of the world’s language families 57
- On using qualitative lexicostatistics to illuminate language history 87
- Beyond lexicostatistics 113
- Phonetic comparison, varieties, and networks 139
- A stochastic local search approach to language tree reconstruction 155
- Author index 173
- Index of languages and language groups 177
- Subject index 181
