09.02.2023

Geography and language divergence: The case of Andic languages

Colloquium by Dr. Michael Daniel

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Time: Thursday, 9.02.2023, 1pm sharp

Location: Rümelinstraße 23, Room 602 or via Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Michael Daniel

Title: Geography and language divergence: The case of Andic languages

Abstract:

Ezequiel Koile, Ilya Chechuro, Michael Daniel and George Moroz
We study the correlation between phylogenetic and geographic distances for the languages of the Andic branch of the East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) language family. For several alternative phylogenies, we find that geographic distances correlate with linguistic divergence. Notably, qualitative classifications show a better fit with geography than cognacy-based phylogenies. We interpret this result as follows: The better fit may be due to implicit geographic bias in qualitative classifications. We conclude that approaches to classification other than those based on cognacy run a risk to implicitly include geography and geography-related factors as one basis of genealogical classifications.

We welcome you all to join us in person or via Zoom. We will send out the specific Zoom link one day before the talk.