Language trees support the express-train sequence of Austronesian expansion

Languages, like molecules, document evolutionary history. Darwin 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, few attempts have been made...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2000-06, Vol.405 (6790), p.1052-1055
Main Authors: Gray, Russell D, Jordan, Fiona M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaeology
Asia
Australia
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Evolution
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Language
Languages
letter
Linguistics
Miscellaneous
Models, Biological
multidisciplinary
Pacific Islands
Phylogeny
Polynesia
Population Dynamics
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Topology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Languages, like molecules, document evolutionary history. Darwin 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, 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 "express-train" and the "entangled-bank" 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.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35016575