1932

Abstract

Repeatedly in recent years, phylogenetic analyses of linguistic data have reached the world's leading scientific journals, but in ways hugely controversial within linguistics itself. Phylogenetic analysis methods, taken from the biological sciences, have been applied to date and track how major language families dispersed through prehistory, with implications also for archaeology and genetics. As this approach is extended to ever more language families worldwide, this review offers methodological perspectives and cautionary tales from the most high-profile and hotly disputed case of all: Indo-European. This article surveys the checkered history of these phylogenetic methods and of the cognacy databases they have relied on for their linguistic input data. It clears up cross-disciplinary misconceptions about this new methodology, identifies major flaws in the current state of the art (hence its highly inconsistent results), diagnoses the causes, and outlines new solutions that might bring the field closer to living up to its potential.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030507
2021-01-04
2024-12-09
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/linguistics/7/1/annurev-linguistics-011619-030507.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030507&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Anthony DW. 2007. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Beaumont MA. 2010. Approximate Bayesian computation in evolution and ecology. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 41:379–406
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bellwood P. 2005. First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies Oxford, UK: Blackwell
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bouckaert R, Lemey P, Dunn M, Greenhill SJ, Alekseyenko AV et al. 2012. Mapping the origins and expansion of the Indo-European language family. Science 337:6097957–60 http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1219669
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bouckaert R, Lemey P, Dunn M, Greenhill SJ, Alekseyenko AV et al. 2013. Correction to: Mapping the origins and expansion of the Indo-European language family. Science 342:61651446 http://doi.org/10.1126/science.342.6165.1446-a
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  6. Campbell L. 2013. Historical Linguistics: An Introduction Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Chang W, Cathcart C, Hall D, Garrett A 2015. Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo-European steppe hypothesis. Language 91:1194–244 http://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2015.0005
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  8. Clackson J. 2016. Latin as a source for the Romance languages. The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages A Ledgeway, M Maiden 3–13 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Drummond AJ, Suchard MA, Xie D, Rambaut A 2012. Bayesian phylogenetics with BEAUti and the BEAST 1.7. Mol. Biol. Evol. 29:81969–73 http://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mss075
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  10. Dyen I, Kruskal JB, Black P 1992. An Indoeuropean classification: a lexicostatistical experiment. Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. 82:51–132 http://doi.org/10.2307/1006517 (data set available at https://thevore.com/comparative-indoeuropean-database-collected-by-isidore-dyen/ )
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  11. Embleton SM. 1995. Review of An Indoeuropean Classification: A Lexicostatistical Experiment, by Isidore Dyen, Joseph B. Kruskal, and Paul Black. Diachronica 12:2263–68 http://doi.org/10.1075/dia.12.2.10emb
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  12. Finegan E. 2009. English. The World's Major Languages B Comrie 59–85 London: Routledge
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Gamkrelidze TV, Ivanov VV. 1984. Indoevropjskij jazyk i indoevropejcy: rekonstrukcija i istoriko-tipologieskij analiz prajazyka i protokultury [The Indo-European Language and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical-Typological Analysis of a Proto-Language and a Proto-Culture] Tblisi, Ga: Tbilisi Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Gamkrelidze TV, Ivanov VV. 1995. Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and a Proto-Culture Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Gimbutas M. 1970. Proto-Indo-European culture: the Kurgan culture during the 5th to the 3rd millennia B.C. Indo-European and Indo-Europeans G Cardona, HM Koenigswald, A Senn 155–98 Philadelphia: Univ. Pa. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gray RD, Atkinson QD. 2003. Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin. Nature 426:435–39 http://doi.org/10.1038/nature02029
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  17. Greenhill SJ, Gray RD. 2009. Austronesian language phylogenies: myths and misconceptions about Bayesian computational methods. Austronesian Historical Linguistics and Culture History: A Festschrift for Robert Blust KA Adelaar, A Pawley 375–97 Canberra, Aust: Pac. Linguist.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Greenhill SJ, Heggarty P, Gray RD 2020. Bayesian phylolinguistics. The Handbook of Historical Linguistics RD Janda, BD Joseph, BS Vance 226–53 Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Heggarty P. 2014. Prehistory by Bayesian phylogenetics? The state of the art on Indo-European origins. Antiquity 88:340566–77 http://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00101188
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  20. Heggarty P. 2015. Prehistory through language and archaeology. The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics C Bowern, B Evans 598–626 London: Routledge https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315794013.ch28
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Heggarty P. 2018a. Indo-European and the ancient DNA revolution. Talking Neolithic: Proceedings of the Workshop on Indo-European Origins Held at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, December 23, 2013 G Kroonen, JP Mallory, B Comrie 120–73 Washington, DC: Inst. Study Man
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Heggarty P. 2018b. Why Indo-European? Clarifying cross-disciplinary misconceptions on farming versus pastoralism. Talking Neolithic: Proceedings of the Workshop on Indo-European Origins Held at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, December 23, 2013 G Kroonen, JP Mallory, B Comrie 69–119 Washington, DC: Inst. Study Man
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Heggarty P, Anderson C, Scarborough M, Greenhill SJ, Kühnert D, Gray RD 2021. Language trees with sampled ancestors support an early origin of the Indo-European language family Work. Pap., Max Planck Inst. Evol. Anthropol Leipzig, Ger:.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Holm HJ. 2011. “Swadesh lists” of Albanian revisited and consequences for its position in the Indo-European languages. J. Indo-Eur. Stud. 39:1–245–99
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Lazzeroni R. 1998. Sanskrit. The Indo-European Languages AG Ramat, P Ramat 98–124 London: Routledge
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Mallory JP. 1989. In Search of the Indo-Europeans London: Thames & Hudson
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Masica CP. 1991. The Indo-Aryan Languages Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  28. McMahon AMS, Heggarty P, McMahon R, Slaska N 2005. Swadesh sublists and the benefits of borrowing: an Andean case study. Trans. Philol. Soc. 103:2147–70 http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-968X.2005.00148.x
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  29. McMahon AMS, McMahon R. 2005. Language Classification by Numbers Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Nakhleh L, Ringe D, Warnow T 2005. Perfect phylogenetic networks: a new methodology for reconstructing the evolutionary history of natural languages. Language 81:2382–420 www.jstor.org/stable/4489897
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Pereltsvaig A, Lewis MW. 2015. The Indo-European Controversy: Facts and Fallacies in Historical Linguistics Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Rama T. 2018. Three tree priors and five datasets: a study of Indo-European phylogenetics. Lang. Dyn. Change 8:2182–218 http://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-00802005
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  33. Renfrew C. 1987. Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins London: Jonathan Cape
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Ringe DA, Warnow T, Taylor A 2002. Indo-European and computational cladistics. Trans. Philol. Soc. 100:159–129 http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.00091
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  35. Ritchie AM, Ho SYW. 2019. Influence of the tree prior and sampling scale on Bayesian phylogenetic estimates of the origin times of language families. J. Lang. Evol. 4:2108–23 https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzz005
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  36. Rix H, Kümmel MJ, Zehnder T, Lipp R, Schirmer B 2001. Lexikon der Indogermanischen Verben (LIV2) Wiesbaden, Ger: Reichert, 2nd. ed.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Whitfield J. 2003. Language tree rooted in Turkey. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/news031124-6
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  38. Wodtko DS, Irslinger B, Schneider C 2008. Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon (NIL) Heidelberg, Ger: Winter
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Yang Z. 2006. Computational Molecular Evolution Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030507
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011619-030507
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error