Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Glottochronology |
GlottochronologyNoun1. The determination of how long ago different languages evolved from a common source language; "he mapped the glottochronology of the Romance languages". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In linguistics, the technique of glottochronology is used to estimate the time of divergence of two related languages. It is analogous to the use of C14 dating of organic materials in that a "lexical half-life" is estimated and used to extrapolate to the time the two languages being compared diverged. The method presumes that the basic vocabulary may be used as a sort of clock, on the assumption that basic vocabulary changes at a more-or-less constant rate through time. Morris Swadesh compiled a list of concepts for a basic vocabulary, the Swadesh list. The method is highly controversial and many linguists argue that there is no evidence that language change occurs at a steady rate. Glottochronological results are considered by many linguists to be invalid.Lexicostatistics involves measuring the percentage of cognates (that is, similar words with similar meanings in two languages where the similarity is attributable to descent from a common ancestral form in an ancestral language) in "basic word lists". The larger the percentage of cognates, the more recently the two languages being compared are presumed to have separated.
Bibliography
- Robert Lees, The Basis of Glottochronology, Language, Vol. 29, No. 2., pp. 113-127.
- Andree Sjoberg and Gideon Sjoberg, Problems in Glottochronology, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 58, No. 2., pp. 296-308.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Glottochronology."
Crosswords: Glottochronology |
| English words defined with "glottochronology": lexicostatistics. (references) |
| "Glottochronology" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Glottochronology" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 3 | 202,518 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
glottochronology | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "glottochronology"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Farsi | مبحث مطالعه سیرتکامل زبانهای مختلف . (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ottochronologyglay.(various references) | |
Russian | глоттохронология. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
