Cladistic analysis of languages: Indo-European classification based

From: Joao
Message: 34856
Date: 2004-10-27

Attachments :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WCG-47X1T77-5&_user=10&_handle=B-WA-A-A-AZ-MsSAYVW-UUW-AAUAWDEAEC-AUEYYCEEEC-DUAAEYCWB-AZ-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F2003&_rdoc=3&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%236738%232003%23999809997%23420373!&_cdi=6738&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=96408ba409ee75fb71e05016f67c7ab8
 
 Cladistics
Volume 19, Issue 2 , April 2003, Pages 120-127
 
 

Cladistic analysis of languages: Indo-European classification based on lexicostatistical data

KateImageina RexováCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, a, b, Daniel Fryntaa and Jan Zrzavýc

a Department of Zoology, Charles University, ViniImagená 7, CZ-128 44, Praha 2, Czech Republic
b Department of Philosophy and History of Sciences, Charles University, ViniImagená 7, CZ-128 44, Praha 2, Czech Republic
c Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, BraniImageovská 31, CZ-370 05, Imageeské BudImagejovice, Czech Republic

Accepted 15 July 2002. ; Available online 11 February 2003.


Abstract

The phylogeny of the Indo-European (IE) language family is reconstructed by application of the cladistic methodology to the lexicostatistical dataset collected by Dyen (about 200 meanings, 84 speech varieties, the Hittite language used as a functional outgroup). Three different methods of character coding provide trees that show: (a) the presence of four groups, viz., Balto-Slavonic clade, Romano-Germano-Celtic clade, Armenian-Greek group, and Indo-Iranian group (the two last groups possibly paraphyletic); (b) the unstable position of the Albanian language; (c) the unstable pattern of the basalmost IE differentiation; but (d) the probable existence of the Balto-Slavonic–Indo-Iranian ("satem") and the Romano-Germano-Celtic (+Albanian?) superclades. The results are compared with the phenetic approach to lexicostatistical data, the results of which are significantly less informative concerning the basal pattern. The results suggest a predominantly branching pattern of the basic vocabulary phylogeny and little borrowing of individual words. Different scenarios of IE differentiation based on archaeological and genetic information are discussed.