1. Historical Linguistics
Language history
drift: change by internal development
contact: change by external borrowing
Possible relations among languages
family tree:
similarity due to separate development from common ancestor
diffusion of traits
similarity due to borrowing in period of contact
or, no provable relationship
Tasks of historical linguistics
inference of historical connections
reconstruction of “proto” languages
September 22, 2018

2. Colonial Philology
Thomas Jefferson corresponded with many sources to obtain word lists in Indian languages
Examined and compared the results of Peter the Great’s Siberian expeditions
Benjamin Franklin also collected Indian word lists
September 22, 2018

3. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia. [Written1781-82].
How many ages have elapsed since the English, Dutch, the Germans, the Swiss, the Norwegians, Danes and Swedes have separated from their common stock? Yet how many more must elapse before the proofs of their common origin, which exist in their several languages, will disappear? It is to be lamented then … that we have suffered so many of the Indian tribes already to extinguish, without our having previously collected and deposited in the records of literature, the general rudiments at least of the languages they spoke. Were vocabularies formed of all the languages spoken in North and South America, preserving their appellations of the most common objects in nature, of those which must be present to every nation barbarous or civilised, with the inflections of their nouns and verbs, their principles of regimen and concord, and these deposited in all the public libraries, it would furnish opportunities to those skilled in the languages of the old world to compare them with these, now or at a future time, and hence to construct the best evidence of the derivation of this part of the human race.
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia. [Written ].
September 22, 2018

4. Benjamin Barton sees a pattern
By a careful inspection of the vocabularies, the reader will find no difficulty in discovering that in Asia the languages of the … tribes of the Delaware-stock may be all traced to ONE COMMON SOURCE. Nor do I limit this observation to the languages of the American tribes just mentioned… HITHERTO, WE HAVE NOT DISCOVERED IN AMERICA… ANY TWO, OR MORE LANGUAGES BETWEEN WHICH WE ARE INCAPABLE OF DETECTING AFFINITIES (AND THOSE VERY OFTEN STRIKING) EITHER IN AMERICAN, OR IN THE OLD WORLD.
New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America
Benjamin Smith Barton M.D., Professor of Materia Medica, Natural
History and Botany, in the University of Pennsylvania (1798)
September 22, 2018

5. Barton’s hypothesis: My inquiries seem to render it probable, that all
the languages of the countries of America may
… be traced to one or two great stocks…
September 22, 2018

6. Jefferson disagreed: Notes on the State of Virginia [Written 1781-82]
…imperfect as is our knowledge of the tongues spoken in America, it suffices to discover the following remarkable fact. Arranging them under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced, and doing the same by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found probably twenty in America, for one in Asia, of those radical languages, so called because, if they were ever the same, they have lost all resemblance to one another. A separation into dialects may be the work of a few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another till they have lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require an immense course of time; perhaps not less than many people give to the age of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of language having taken place among the red men of America, proves them of greater antiquity than those of Asia.
Notes on the State of Virginia [Written ]
September 22, 2018

7. though later, J. considered a sociolinguistic explanation…
Having heard that some Indians considered it
dishonorable to use any language but their own,
he suggested that when a part of a tribe
separated itself, the seceded group might refuse
to use the original language and invent their own.
“Perhaps this hypothesis presents less difficulty
than that of so many radically distinct languages
preserved by such handfuls of men from an antiquity
so remote that no data we possess will enable us
to calculate it.” [Ms. notes circa 1800]
September 22, 2018

8. Jefferson’s plans
By 1801, he had collected vocabularies for dozens of indigenous languages
and began to arrange this for publication “lest by some accident it might be lost”
He put off publication in 1803
due to the opportunity to include the results of the Lewis & Clark expedition
September 22, 2018

9. The sad end of J.’s linguistic career
His linguistic papers were packed in a large trunk and shipped back to Monticello in 1809 with his other effects
The trunk was stolen during the trip up the James River
The disappointed thief dumped the contents in the river
Only a few items floated to shore and were recovered
September 22, 2018

10. Jefferson to Barton (1809), sent with Lewis’ vocabulary of Pani:
It is a specimen of the condition of the little that was
recovered. I am the more concerned at this accident,
as of the two hundred and fifty words of my
vocabularies, and the one hundred and thirty words
of the great Russian vocabularies … seventy three
were common to both, and would have furnished
materials… from which something might have resulted.
Perhaps I may make another attempt to collect,
although I am too old to expect to make much progress
in it.
September 22, 2018

11. Sir William (“Oriental”) Jones
Lawyer appointed in 1783 to superintend British jurisprudence in India
Founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta “for Inquiring into the History, Civil and Natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences, and Literature, of Asia”
Learned Sanskrit because “the laws of the natives must be preserved inviolate; but the learning and vigilance of the English judge must be a check upon the native interpreters”
September 22, 2018

12. One of the early European “orientalists”
Cross-cultural pioneers?
Agents of colonial domination?
September 22, 2018

13. Historical Context The British in India piecemeal conquest 1750-1900
began with trade concessions in Calcutta and Bombay
expanded one principality at a time
mixture of direct and indirect rule
many Indian institutions left in place
rule mainly administered and enforced by Indians
until 1850s, administration was in the hands of the East India Company rather than the British Crown
September 22, 2018

14. India in 1785
September 22, 2018

15. Jones learns Sanskrit (1783-1786)
Language of Hindu holy texts (1000 BC)
Formalized by grammarians c. 600 BC
Preserved to the present day as a language of religion and learning
No Brahman would teach a foreigner
Jones hired a vaidya (doctor) as tutor while the Brahmanic scholars were away on a religious retreat
September 22, 2018

16. Jones’ Third Discourse (1786)
Anniversary addresses to the Asiatic Society
First Discourse: purposes and procedures of the Society
Second Discourse: a detailed research program
Third Discourse: on the nations of Asia
The five principal nations, who have in different ages divided among
themselves, as a kind of inheritance, the vast continent of Asia, with
the many islands depending on it, are the Indians, the Chinese, the
Tartars, the Arabs, and the Persians; who they severally were, whence
and when they came, where they now are settled, and what advantage
a more perfect knowledge of them all may bring to our European world,
will be shown, I trust, in five distinct essays; the last of which will
demonstrate the connexion or diversity between then, and solve the great
problem, whether they had any common origin, and whether that origin
was the same, which we generally ascribe to them.
September 22, 2018

17. The Indo-European Hypothesis
The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek; more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanskrit, and the old Persian might be added to the same family.
September 22, 2018

18. Jones’ American connection
Jones was a radical Whig and an early political supporter of the American Revolution
Met Benjamin Franklin at the RS in 1771
Visited Franklin in Paris in 1779, 1780, and 1782
To explore compromise peace plans
To deal with a client’s property claims in Virginia
To obtain a pass for travel to America
considered emigration to Charleston or Philadelphia!
Many weeks of political and philosophical conversations
Indirect communication with Jefferson
Relations to the Virginia manuscript?
September 22, 2018

19. Indo-European Examples
English
Latin
Greek
Sanskrit
father
pater
patêr
pitar
brother
frater
phrater
(fellow tribesman)
bhratar
two
duo
dva
three
tres
treis
tryas
four
quattuor
tettares
catvaras
seven
septem
hepta
sapta
September 22, 2018

20. Jones’ methods
Analyst must be “perfectly acquainted” with the languages compared
Meanings of proposed cognates must be nearly identical
Vowels should not be disregarded
No metathesis or unexplained consonant insertions
Transliterations must be systematic and careful
Use basic vocabulary, not exotic words more likely to be borrowed
September 22, 2018

21. Remember Barton
By a careful inspection of the vocabularies, the reader will find no difficulty in discovering that in Asia the languages of the … tribes of the Delaware-stock may be all traced to ONE COMMON SOURCE. Nor do I limit this observation to the languages of the American tribes just mentioned… HITHERTO, WE HAVE NOT DISCOVERED IN AMERICA… ANY TWO, OR MORE LANGUAGES BETWEEN WHICH WE ARE INCAPABLE OF DETECTING AFFINITIES (AND THOSE VERY OFTEN STRIKING) EITHER IN AMERICAN, OR IN THE OLD WORLD.
New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America
Benjamin Smith Barton M.D., Professor of Materia Medica, Natural
History and Botany, in the University of Pennsylvania (1798)
September 22, 2018

22. Thomas Jefferson again:
…imperfect as is our knowledge of the tongues spoken in America, it suffices to discover the following remarkable fact. Arranging them under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced, and doing the same by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found probably twenty in America, for one in Asia, of those radical languages, so called because, if they were ever the same, they have lost all resemblance to one another. A separation into dialects may be the work of a few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another till they have lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require an immense course of time; perhaps not less than many people give to the age of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of language having taken place among the red men of America, proves them of greater antiquity than those of Asia.
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1787
September 22, 2018

23. The controversy continues
(Like Barton) Joseph Greenberg (1987):
All American languages in three groups:
Eskimo-Aleut
Na-Dene
Amerind
(Like Jefferson) Other scholars:
The Amerind category is a fiction
There are
~60 unrelated families in N. America
~19 unrelated families in C. America
~80 unrelated families in S. America
September 22, 2018

24. Different methods Mass comparison Comparative reconstruction
Cognate ratios (lexicostatistics)
Glottochronology
Typological features
e.g. classifier systems
Comparative reconstruction
Determination of systematic sound laws
Lexical and morphological reconstruction
September 22, 2018

25. “Laws” of sound change Meaning change is usually sporadic
Sound change is usually systematic, e.g.
t/d deletion (best, past, lost, etc.)
short a raising (camera, man, vanish, etc.)
“Neogrammarian hypothesis” (1870):
All sound change is systematic
Apparent exceptions: analysis is incomplete
Article of faith with scholars known as “the young grammarians”
September 22, 2018

26. Grimm’s Law Jakob Grimm (1822) Gradation of consonant manner
bh dh gh -> b d g
b d g -> p t k
p t k -> f th h
pater father labium lip
tres three duo two
canis hound ager acre
bhratar brother
dha do
vah wagon
September 22, 2018

27. Verner’s Law Karl Adolf Verner (1875) Fixes “gaps” in Grimm’s Law:
voicing after accentless vowels
applies to non-Grimm’s Law cases as well
from PIE to Gothic in four algorithmic steps:
PIE GL
(vowels) fathár
VL fadár
AS fádar
September 22, 2018

28. More on sound change Well attested in recent history
I.e. English Great Vowel Shift
Can study sound change in progress today
Tends to produce tree-like histories.
operates on the system as a whole
isn’t easily borrowed across languages
September 22, 2018

29. Problems with comparative reconstruction
Requires detailed knowledge of languages involved
Must be enough cognates for patterns to emerge
and layers of borrowing to be identified and discarded
Maximum time depth of 5-10K years
(Jefferson was right)
September 22, 2018

30. Cognate percentages Catherine the Great’s method
make a list of appellations of the most common objects in nature, of those which must be present to every nation barbarous or civilised
Standard lists devised by Morris Swadesh around 1950
For each pair of languages, estimate the proportion of cognate words
Raw result is a table of percentages
like a table of trip distances
September 22, 2018

31. Example Central Yambasa languages (Cameroon) Gunu [two lists] 82 Elip85 90
Mmala [two lists] 78 89
Yangben[two lists] 77 81 88
Baca [two lists] 66 72
Mbule [two lists] 58 63 64 70 69
Bati 42 41 46 45
Hijuk [two lists] 39 38 37 40
Basaa
Central Yambasa languages (Cameroon)
September 22, 2018

32. Questions about lexicostatistics
“Genetic descent” vs. borrowing
borrowing creates non-tree structures
Variability of rate of change
Swadesh: 14% per millenium
Expected rate of false cognates
How to combine with other evidence
Inference of tree structure
from cognate percentages
from detailed account of shared traits
September 22, 2018

33. Historical inference from linguistic and genetic data
Potentially “…the best evidence of the derivation of … the human race” (Thomas Jefferson)
BUT
Inferences are complex
methods and results from several disciplines
Intellectual stakes are high
Work has often been careless
sometimes spectacularly so
dangers of overinterpretation and “scientism”
September 22, 2018

34. General methodological problems
Not all graphs are trees
“treeness” tests often left out
“treeness” hypothesis can often be rejected
Tree inference may be underdetermined
Branching structure
Root choice
Rates of change may not be constant
for different markers
across time
Gene trees (and language trees) may not be population trees
Biology and language are complicated
simplifying assumptions are sometimes perniciously mistaken
September 22, 2018

35. Trees vs. Clines (etc.)
A tree structure represents the results of a sequence of splits in population (or language)
no further influences among separate branches
if rates of change are constant, distances should be quantized
Within an interbreeding (intercommunicating) population, distances reflect the amount of gene flow (transmission of linguistic traits)
should correlate strongly with accessibility
e.g. geographical distance in the simplest case
September 22, 2018

36. September 22, 2018

37. The… procedures outlined here provide a rigorous method for inferring whether the geographical pattern of variation is consistent with an historical split (fragmentation) or no split(recurrent gene flow) using criteria that are completely explicit. For example, in analyzing the mtDNA of tiger salamanders, a clear split into eastern and western lineages was detected for mtDNA. Using the same explicit criteria, there was no split among any human populations. Quite the contrary, the present analysis documents recurrent and continual genetic interchange among all Old World human populations throughout the entire time period marked by mt DNA. Accordingly, estimating a date for a 'split' of Africans from non-Africans based on evidence from mtDNA is certainly allowed by many computer programs, but the results are meaningless because a date is being assigned to an 'event' that never occurred.
Templeton (1997)
September 22, 2018

38. Methods for tree inference (“phylogeny”)
Two general approaches
clustering (easier but cruder)
generate and evaluate alternative trees
Distance-based methods
based on matrix of distances/similarities
Parsimony
based on set of partly-shared characters or traits
documents 193 different phylogeny packages
September 22, 2018

39. Cognate percentages for 8 Vanuatu languages
Toga
64 Mosina
Peterara
Nduindui
Sakao
Malo
Fortsenal
Raga
Data from Guy (1994)
September 22, 2018

40. Reconstruction Algorithm (Guy 1994)
“A message is input at the root of a tree-shaped transmission network, whence it is transmitted to the terminal nodes. As they travel, copies of the original message are affected by errors consisting in randomly selected segments of the message being replaced by other segments randomly drawn from a pool of possible segments (the "alphabet“ of the message). The problem is: from the garbled versions of the original message collected at the terminal nodes, reconstruct the network and the history of the transmission of the message.”
“Additive-distance” tree with weights on branches rather than on nodes -- doesn’t assume constant rate of change…
September 22, 2018

41. Explanatory force of the model
Set of distances grows as
Set of binary-tree branch labels grows as
For 8 languages: we predict 28 numbers (the inter-language cognate proportions) with 14 numbers (the binary tree branch proportions)
September 22, 2018

42. Inferred tree from Guy (1994)
Toga : : : :
Mosina ' | | |
Peterara ' | |
Nduindui : ' |
Raga ' |
Sakao : : '
Fortsenal ' |
Malo '
Mosina/Toga: *.83 = (really 64%)
Peterara/Mosina: .829*.919*.77 = (really 58%)
Peterara/Toga: *.919*.830 = (really 64%)
from Guy (1994)
September 22, 2018

43. True - predicted cognate percentages
Toga
0 Mosina
1 -1 Peterara
Nduindui
Sakao
Malo
Fortsenal
Raga
The model fits very well!
September 22, 2018

44. Where’s the root? Isn’t it obvious?
Toga : : : :--Protolanguage
Mosina ' | | |
Peterara ' | |
Nduindui : ' |
Raga ' |
Sakao : : '
Fortsenal ' |
Malo '
September 22, 2018

45. Oops: other options protolanguage
Toga : : : :
Mosina ' | | |
Peterara ' | |
Nduindui : ' |
Raga ' |
Sakao : : '
Fortsenal ' |
Malo '
September 22, 2018

46. And some more… protolanguage
Toga -830-:-919-:-972-:-947-:-895-:-883-:-567- Sakao
Mosina -770-' | | | `-759- Fortsenal
Peterara ' | ` Malo
Nduindui :-949-'
Raga '
In the absence of other constraints, the root can be placed anywhere
in the tree without changing the model’s fit!
September 22, 2018

47. Possible “other constraints”
Historical evidence
about earlier forms
about structure of relationships among contemporary forms
“outgroup”
Constraints on rate of change
linguistic (or genetic) “clock”
September 22, 2018

48. A universal constant for glottochronology?
Thirteen sets of data, presented in partial justification of these assumptions, serve as a basis for calculating a universal constant to express the average rate of retention k of the basic-root morphemes:
k = ± per millennium,
with a confidence limit of 90%.
Lees (1953)
September 22, 2018

49. Some of Lees’ data: Language Years Words Cognates Rate English 1000
(per millenium)
English
1000
209
160
.766
Latin/Spanish
1800
200
131
.790
Latin/French
1850
125
.776
German
1100
214
180
.854
Middle Egyptian/ Coptic
2200
106
.760
Greek
2070
213
147
.836
Chinese
210
167
.795
Swedish
1050
207
176
.853
September 22, 2018

50. Some more retentive languages (rates per 1000 years)
100-word list
200-word list
Icelandic (rural)
99%
97.6%
Icelandic (urban)
98%
96.2%
Georgian
96.5%
89.9%
Amenian
97.8%
94%
Bergsland & Vogt (1962)
September 22, 2018

51. Some less retentive ones
Bergsland & Vogt estimate of vocabulary retention in East Greenlandic as .722 in 600 years, or .34 per millenium.
David Lithgow (pers. com. circa 1970) has observed a replacement of some 20% of the basic vocabulary in Muyuw (Woodlark island) in one generation. Raise 0.8 to the 33rd power, and that gives you the retention rate of Muyuw per 1000 years should it continue to evolve at that rate: 0.06%.
Jacques Guy (1994)
September 22, 2018

52. “Language chains” A
.77 B C
Configurations like this are taken as prima facie evidence of
“non-treeness”, to be attributed to borrowing/mixing/cline
types of situations. But in fact they can also easily be generated
by variable rates of change:
A %
|____ protolanguage
B % |
| % ----'
C % ----'
Note that the required difference in mean rate of change
is only (.9-.9*.8)/.9 = .2 , or 20%
September 22, 2018

53. Mitochondrial Genome
September 22, 2018

54. Mitochondrial family tree
September 22, 2018

55. Mitochondrial phylogeny
September 22, 2018

56. Three fascinating “results”
Mitochrondrial Eve
Mitochrondial Clans
The three-wave theory: converging linguistic and genetic evidence
September 22, 2018

57. Mitochondrial Eve Cann, Stoneking, and Wilson (1987):
mtDNA comparisons of 147 people from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and new Guinea show that all present human mtDNA is descended from a single African woman who lived about 200,000 years ago.
September 22, 2018

58. First problem
Computer program was used to find a tree consistent with the mtDNA data
But so were many other (unreported) trees!
order of answers depended on order of data
root could be effectively anywhere in the dataset
e.g. Melanesian Eve, Asian Eve, European Eve…
September 22, 2018

59. Other problems mtDNA may not change at a constant rate
mtDNA changes may be adaptive
Gene trees may not be population trees
DNA (including mtDNA) can spread by gradual flow or by range expansion
spread can be influenced by other factors
September 22, 2018

60. Amerinds have all four lineages, NaDene only A, and Eskaleuts A and D.
Early results: Native Americans come from four genetic lineages, labeled A through D.
Amerinds have all four lineages,
NaDene only A, and Eskaleuts A and D.
Current results:
The four mtDNA lineages divide into nine distinct genetic subtypes.
All four lineages are in all three language groups.
Many local populations have all four lineages and a number even have all the subtypes.
All subtypes can be found in North, Central and South America.
“It isn't realistic to believe that the same lineages ended up in all these populations across two continents by separate migrations."
September 22, 2018

61. We put the Genes in Genealogy
Oxford Ancestors
We put the Genes in Genealogy
Oxford Ancestors is the World's first organization to harness the power and precision of modern DNA- based genetics in the service of genealogy.
MatriLine™ interprets your deep maternal ancestry, linking you - if your roots are in Europe - to one of seven women: Ursula, Tara, Helena, Katrine, Velda, Xenia or Jasmine.
September 22, 2018

62. September 22, 2018

63. And MtDNA inheritance may not even be entirely clonal!
Mice
demonstration of “paternal leakage”
Hagelberg
rare mtDNA mutation in Vanuatu
Erye-Walker
statistics of mtDNA “homoplasies”
September 22, 2018

64. Island evidence Erika Hagelberg (Proc. R. Soc. 1999)
Island of Nguna (Vanuatu, Melanesia)
3 main MtDNA population groups
as expected for the region
In all three groups, the same mutation is sometimes found
previously known only from one Northern European
Repeated chance mutation is unlikely
local spread by recombination seems more probable
September 22, 2018

65. Statistics of mtDNA “homoplasies”
Mutations that occur in different mtDNA haplogroups around the world
Assuming purely maternal inheritance, these were thought to represent chance recurrence of mutations in “hypervariable” regions
Eyre-Walker et al. (Proc. R. Soc. 1999):
regions are not statistically more variable than others
mutations cluster geographically
MacCauley (1999) counters
much of the result comes from a dataset that may be errorful
“no need to panic”
September 22, 2018

66. Reaction of another mtDNA afficionado:
…I am reminded of a comment by a bishop’s wife
in Victorian England, also concerning human origins:
“Let us hope that it isn’t true, and if it is, that it will
not become generally known.”
September 22, 2018