Slow rate of lexical replacement and deeper genetic relationships
Workshop: Genealogical classification of African languages beyond Greenberg
JM Hombert, R Grollemund, G Philippson
Berlin, Feb 21-22, 2010
Genetic mutations
vs. Linguistic « mutations »
• Largest genetic diversity in Africa (study of
human genome shows that early mutations of populations took place only in Africa)
• Slow mutations for deep grouping, fast
mutations for recent divisions (subgrouping)
• Linguistic mutations (changes) do not allow to retrace the history from the « beginning »
Speed of lexical replacement
• 20% of change in basic vocabulary/1000 years
• Percentages of cognates
– After 1.000 years : 64%
– After 2.000 years : 41%
– After 10.000 years : 1%
• Very little hope for detecting deep linguistic relationships between 2 languages
Stability of lexical items
• Variable rate of change
• Use of basic vocabulary
• Variable rate of change in basic vocabulary
Resistant lexical items
• IE : 87 languages, Swadesh 200 wordlist
• One to 46 cognates/meaning
• Slow changing items : five, I, one, two, who
• Frequency play a major role : frequently used words evolve at slower rates
Pagel, Atkinson and Meade (2007), Nature
Adv.
WHERE
17
Noun TOOTH (FRONT)
17
Noun
17 STAR
Adv.
17 NOT
Verb TO GIVE
17
Pronoun
14 THOU
Noun NIGHT
14
Noun
14 EAR
Adv.
12 WHAT
Adj.
12 NEW
Noun TONGUE
10
Noun
10 NAME
Adv.
9 HOW
Pronoun
6 WE
Number
6 ONE
Number
6 FOUR
Pronoun
1 WHO
Number
1 TWO
Number THREE
1
Pronoun
1 I
Number
1 FIVE
Category Item
Rank
Noun
43 BONE
Noun LOUSE
38
Adj.
38 LONG
Prep.
38 IN
Noun
38 FOOT
Verb TO DRINK
38
Noun
33 SNOW
Noun SMOKE
33
Verb TO SIT
33
Pronoun
33 HE
Noun
33 FISH
Adv.
28 WHEN
Noun
28 SALT
Pronoun MOTHER
28
Verb TO LIVE
28
Noun DAY (NOT NIGHT)
28
Pronoun FATHER
27
Adj.
WATER
22
Noun
22 SUN
Noun
22 HAND
Noun
22 EYE
Verb TO DIE
22
Category Item
Rank
Loanword Typology Project
Major Bantu subdivisions (from lexico-statistical data, Bastin and Piron 1999)
Bantu languages of Gabon
• 52 languages
• 150 words
• Algab project
18
flesh/meat
2 5
17
wing
9 3 15
name
3 9
15
louse
14
1SG pronoun
3 9
13
rain
22 4 12
(breast, chest)
1 1
12
breast
5 35
11
to come
9
2SG pronoun
5 35
9
root (big)
2 5
9
(root, small)
6 45
7
blood
2 5
7
bone
22 4 6
tongue
4 22
5
mouth
5 35
4
water
3
to go
5 35
2
nose
6 45
1
fire
Nb of roots Algab
Leipzig-Jakarta Meaning
2 5
38
fish
10 68
37
leg/foot
8 61
36
to hit/beat
34
3SG pronoun
3 9
34
who?
5 35
32
big
4 22
32
one
4 22
31
hair
28
bitter
8 61
28
to say
3 9
28
tooth
4 22
27
stone/rock
4 22
26
house
25
to do/make
23
far
6 45
23
neck
3 9
22
ear
20
fly
8 61
20
night
3 9
19
arm/hand
Nb of roots Algab
Leipzig-Jakarta Meaning
