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glottochronology

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The study of languages to determine when they diverged from being the same language.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the determination of how long ago different languages evolved from a common source language

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From glotto- +‎ chronology.

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Examples

Comments

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  • A mathematical method for estimating the date that two sister languages separated using the percentage of the cognates in the core vocabulary and a fixed rate of change.

    June 20, 2007

  • One difficulty with the method is the assumption of a fixed rate of change, which not only seems unrealistic (linguistic change is often precipitated by political events such as wars, invasions, or forced migrations - any of which would suggest sporadic, unpredictable big changes rather than a fixed, gradual rate of change), but has been demonstrated empirically not to hold.

    Some refinements to the original model have been made, to reflect this greater complexity, but the linguistic community appears divided regarding the success of these modifications to the model.

    July 20, 2008

  • When Ernest and Herr Doktor Otto

    Get talking and drinking till blotto

    They grow rather foggy

    On strictest chronology

    And vague ‘bout the meaning of glotto.

    Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit

    February 20, 2018