Historical Glottometry is a method used in
historical linguistics. It is a quantitative,
non-cladistic approach to
language subgrouping.
The aim of Historical Glottometry (HG) is to address the limitations of the
tree model when applied to
dialect continua and
linkages. It acknowledges that the genealogical structure of a linkage typically consists of entangled subgroups, and provides ways to reconstruct that internal structure by measuring the relative strength of these subgroups.
This approach was developed by
Alexandre François
Alexandre François is a French linguist specialising in the description and study of the indigenous languages of Melanesia. He belongs t''Lattice'' a research centre of the CNRS and École Normale Supérieure dedicated to linguistics.
Research ...
(
CNRS
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
) and Siva Kalyan (
ANU
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, caption=Symbols of various deities, including Anu (bottom right corner) on a kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125–1104 BCE
, ...
).
[ François (2014).][ François (2017).][ Kalyan & François (2018).] While the method was initially applied to
Oceanic languages, in recent years it has been applied to a much broader range of language families.
Rationale
Historical Glottometry grew out of the observation that a large number of
language families in the world form
linkages (a term coined by
Malcolm Ross), i.e. they evolved out of former
dialect continua in which historical innovations tend to overlap. Such linkages do not conform with the
Tree model often used in historical linguistics, which presupposes that innovations should be nested. This common situation is better approached using the
Wave model.
Inspired by
dialectometry,
the aim of Historical Glottometry is to provide an alternative,
non-cladistic approach to
language genealogy, while remaining true to the principles of the
Comparative method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards t ...
developed by
Neogrammarians
The Neogrammarians (German: ''Junggrammatiker'', 'young grammarians') were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound chang ...
in the 19th century.
Principles of the method
The fundamental principles of Historical Glottometry include the following:
# each
subgroup
In group theory, a branch of mathematics, given a group ''G'' under a binary operation ∗, a subset ''H'' of ''G'' is called a subgroup of ''G'' if ''H'' also forms a group under the operation ∗. More precisely, ''H'' is a subgrou ...
is defined by ''exclusively shared innovations'' (a principle first expressed by
Leskien 876
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Year 876 ( DCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* At the invitation of Benevento, the newly-restored Byzantine fleet appe ...
, i.e. linguistic
synapomorphies;
# subgroups are allowed to
intersect (as expected under the
Wave model);
# the “strength” of each subgroup is measured on a continuous scale (rather than subgroups simply being absent or present). That strength is assessed using two ratings, named ''cohesiveness'' and ''subgroupiness''.
Glottometric diagrams
One of the outputs of Historical Glottometry takes the form of a “glottometric diagram”. Such diagrams are analogous to the
isogloss maps used in
dialectology, except that each isogloss refers not to a single innovation but to a set of languages defined by one or more exclusively-shared innovations — that is, a genealogical subgroup.
The glottometric diagram represents graphically the strength of each subgroup. Thus, the contour's thickness can be made proportional to the rate of “cohesiveness” or “subgroupiness” calculated for that subgroup. Th
homepage of Historical Glottometryinclude
an example of a glottometric diagram based on a study of the
Torres–Banks linkage in
Vanuatu.
Glottometric results can also be displayed in the form of
Neighbornets,
or of ''glottometric maps''.
Applications to particular language families
Several studies have been conducted, partly or entirely within the framework of Historical glottometry – including the following:
* on the
Torres–Banks linkage, a group of
Oceanic languages from
Vanuatu ( François 2014, 2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a se ...
; Kalyan & François 2018);
* on
Sogeram languages, a subgroup of the
Madang family from
Papua New Guinea ( Daniels ''et al.'' 2019);
* on the dialects of
Boni, a subgroup of
Cushitic languages
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As ...
from
Kenya and
Somalia ( Elias 2019);
* on
Arabic dialects
The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable varia ...
of
Egypt and
Sudan ( Leddy-Cecere 2021);
* on
Numic languages, a subgroup of
Uto-Aztecan languages from
North America ( Rannap 2017);
* on
Enlhet–Enenlhet languages, a group of languages spoken in
Paraguay ( van Gysel 2017);
* on early
Germanic languages ( Agee 2018).
Historical glottometry and ''incomplete lineage sorting''
Jacques & List (2019)
show that the concept of ''
incomplete lineage sorting
Incomplete lineage sorting, also termed hemiplasy, deep coalescence, retention of ancestral polymorphism, or trans-species polymorphism, describes a phenomenon in population genetics when ancestral gene copies fail to coalesce (looking backwards i ...
'' can be applied to account for non-treelike phenomena in language evolution. Kalyan and
François
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King ...
(2019) concur that "Historical Glottometry does not challenge the family tree model once ''incomplete lineage sorting'' has been taken into account"
[ Kalyan & François (2019).] – provided the internal variation discussed in the analysis includes the
geographical (dialectal) dimension.
See also
*
Comparative method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards t ...
*
Dialectology
*
Dialectometry
*
Genetic relationship (linguistics)
*
Linkage (linguistics)
*
Wave model
External links
Homepage of Historical glottometry including a tutorial and a bibliography.
Historical glottometry online analyzer a free tool allowing users to upload their own historical data, perform glottometric calculations, and generate a glottometric map.
Notes
References
; Main references
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; Other references
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{{Authority control
Historical linguistics
Comparative linguistics
Quantitative linguistics