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Pré-Publication, Document De Travail Année : 2021

Phylogenetic Perspectives on the Relative Importance of Identity by Descent versus Borrowing in the Lexica of Altaic Languages

Kenichi W Okamoto
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Résumé

The relationship among five North Eurasian language families-Turkic, Mongolic, Japonic, Korean and Tungusic-(so-called "Altaic" languages) has long troubled historical linguists. Although the hypothesis that these language families share a unique common ancestor languished, computational phylogenetics involving lexical datasets suggest some may share a common ancestor. Still, lexical similarity can readily arise from word borrowing; distinguishing potential loan words from genealogical relation is critical to assessing the Altaic hypothesis. Here we aim to fill this major gap by explicitly accounting for lexical borrowing to phylogenetically assess relationships among the Altaic language families. Using methods developed to compare phylogenetic networks with horizontal gene transfer, we statistically evaluate genealogical hypotheses in the presence of potentially extensive borrowing. Examining over 800 concepts in a well-attested database as unique etymological topologies, we find evidence of considerable lexical borrowing among the Altaic language families. Nevertheless, our results also suggest borrowing alone does not account for lexical similarity - in particular, Japonic and Korean likely share a common ancestor distinct from other families, and Mongolic is likely related to Tungusic or Turkic, but not both. We highlight implications of these results for historical linguists more broadly.

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Linguistique
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Dates et versions

hal-03241668 , version 1 (28-05-2021)

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  • HAL Id : hal-03241668 , version 1

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Kenichi W Okamoto. Phylogenetic Perspectives on the Relative Importance of Identity by Descent versus Borrowing in the Lexica of Altaic Languages. 2021. ⟨hal-03241668⟩
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