Language trees support the express-train sequence of Austronesian expansion (vol 405, pg 1052, 2000)

Correction

关键词: POLYNESIA;    HISTORY;    PACIFIC;    MTDNA;    ANTHROPOLOGY;    PREHISTORY;    PHYLOGENY;    SPEAKING;    PATTERNS;    ORIGIN;   

DOI  :  10.1038/35055596

来源: SCIE

【 摘 要 】

Languages, like molecules, document evolutionary history. Darwin(1) observed that evolutionary change in languages greatly resembled the processes of biological evolution: inheritance from a common ancestor and convergent evolution operate in both. Despite many suggestions(2-4), few attempts have been made to apply the phylogenetic methods used in biology to linguistic data. Here we report a parsimony analysis of a large language data set. We use this analysis to test competing hypotheses-the expresstrain(5) and the entangled-bank(6,7) models-for the colonization of the Pacific by Austronesian-speaking peoples. The parsimony analysis of a matrix of 77 Austronesian languages with 5,185 lexical items produced a single most-parsimonious tree. The express-train model was converted into an ordered geographical character and mapped onto the language tree. We found that the topology of the language tree was highly compatible with the express-train model.

【 授权许可】

Free