From: M G
Message: 2176
Date: 2000-04-23
----- Original Message -----
From: Gerry Reinhart-Waller <waluk@...>
To: <cybalist@egroups.com>
Please excuse me for intervening:
(I am new to this list and a simple amateur of history, end not a native
english speaker)
but I cannot understand the title of the table labelled:
" % of divergence between any two languages "
Might not it be labelled
" % of CONVERGENCE (still existing) between any two languages " ?
In this casethe figures found in the tabel would be correct showing 100%
convercence at the beginning (= no differientiation) and 0 % convergence at
the bottom of the list (= total differentiation)
Thanks in advance. (Marcus Prometheus, Italian living in Romania).
> > Gerry, Glottochronology gives the following table
> >
> > since divergence occurred
> >
> > 100 0
> > 90 3.5
> > 80 7.4
> > 70 11.8
> > 60 16.9
> > 50 22.9
> > 40 30.3
> > 30 39.9
> > 20 56.6
> > 10 102.6
> > 1 225.0
> >
> > Thus by knowing the difference in similarity you can read out a
> > minimum time of divergence. Since Amerindians have been living in
> > North America between 120-150 centuries, we are looking at Burushaski
> > having between 1-10% common vocabulary. This would rate as a
> > difference in language, Gerry, not a difference in dialect.
> >
> > Nostratic is dealing with such long horizons. It is what makes the
> > field so contentious.
> >
> > Hope this helps
> >
> > Regards
>
>
> Thanks John for the Glottochronology chart. Now if Amerindians have
> been living in North America longer than 150 centuries ago (which I
> reasonably suspect they might) then we are looking at a similarity of
> 0-1% in vocabulary. That's almost a meaningless number, yet it's a
> number nevertheless. So, rather than a phonetic examination of
> commonality, we need to see alternate methods. For starters, I'd go
> with DNA evidence.
>
> Best wishes,
> Gerry
>
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