20th century – 20th century
Africa
Glottochronology is a linguistic dating technique applied in African research to estimate the age of lexical developments from rates of vocabulary change. It distinguishes cultural and basic vocabulary and assumes that basic vocabulary is retained at a relatively stable rate. The extract presents its promise as a historical time gauge but stresses that borrowing, lexical interference, and inadequate comparative evidence severely limit its reliability.
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The Story
Glottochronology seeks to date the development of lexical terms and forms by measuring vocabulary change. It distinguishes cultural vocabulary, including philosophical concepts and techniques, from basic vocabulary such as body-part terms, low numbers, and words for natural phenomena. The method assumes that basic vocabulary changes relatively slowly, especially in societies not disrupted by catastrophic historical influences.
The extract reports that Delafosse’s use of vocabulary recorded in Arabic texts since the eleventh century helped establish an approximate rate of lexical development for languages of the Sudan. Such vocabulary is described as remaining almost unchanged over a thousand years. Proponents of the method, including Swadesh, further argued that vocabulary retention occurred at a constant rate across languages.
The proposed rate of retention is given as roughly 81 ± 2 to 85 ± 0.4 percent over a period of one thousand years. Glottochronology consequently offers an equation for estimating the duration separating related languages from the percentage of shared terms. Yet the extract concludes that the method falls short as a dependable historical clock because borrowing and overlapping languages make it difficult to distinguish ordinary change from lexical interference.
20th century – 20th century
Africa
Glottochronology is a linguistic dating technique applied in African research to estimate the age of lexical developments from rates of vocabulary change. It distinguishes cultural and basic vocabulary and assumes that basic vocabulary is retained at a relatively stable rate. The extract presents its promise as a historical time gauge but stresses that borrowing, lexical interference, and inadequate comparative evidence severely limit its reliability.
Continue exploring
The Story
Glottochronology seeks to date the development of lexical terms and forms by measuring vocabulary change. It distinguishes cultural vocabulary, including philosophical concepts and techniques, from basic vocabulary such as body-part terms, low numbers, and words for natural phenomena. The method assumes that basic vocabulary changes relatively slowly, especially in societies not disrupted by catastrophic historical influences.
The extract reports that Delafosse’s use of vocabulary recorded in Arabic texts since the eleventh century helped establish an approximate rate of lexical development for languages of the Sudan. Such vocabulary is described as remaining almost unchanged over a thousand years. Proponents of the method, including Swadesh, further argued that vocabulary retention occurred at a constant rate across languages.
The proposed rate of retention is given as roughly 81 ± 2 to 85 ± 0.4 percent over a period of one thousand years. Glottochronology consequently offers an equation for estimating the duration separating related languages from the percentage of shared terms. Yet the extract concludes that the method falls short as a dependable historical clock because borrowing and overlapping languages make it difficult to distinguish ordinary change from lexical interference.
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