From: Mark Odegard
Message: 2527
Date: 2000-05-24
To get a rough estimate of when the language arose, Nichols used a linguistic method that assumes a semiregular rate of vocabulary loss per 1000 years, and she dated the ancestral language to about 8000 years ago
This is glottochronology. I'm suprised a peer-reviewed journal like Science let them get away with this statement without indicating how 'controversial' glottochronology is.Mark.