Cover not available

In:Afroasiatic: Data and perspectives
Edited by Mauro Tosco
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 339] 2018
► pp. 23–39

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

The limits and potentials of cladistics in Semitic

Published online: 1 February 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.339.03zem
Abstract
Classificational methods based on cladistics are increasingly used in comparative and historical linguistics, including the classification of the Semitic languages. The main data type used in such studies is lexical (especially Swadesh lists); in comparison, grammatical features have been introduced rather slowly.
This contribution examines the possibilities of using grammatical data for phylogenetic tree construction and visualization with NeighborNet techniques. Three datasets with grammatical data are examined both individually and in combination for the two procedures, i.e., constructing phylogenetic trees and networks visualizing the distances among languages.
The results show great variation in trees constructed on the basis of grammatical data by phylogenetic methods, especially for datasets with less rigorous choice of features, but they provide interesting visualizations when the datasets are used with NeighborNet tools. We have extracted the following signals from the models: there seem to be four regions where the Semitic languages resided, the position of Arabic appears stable within the Northwestern languages, and the positions of Sayhadic and Modern South Arabian require further examination, but they may constitute a separate Peninsular region (without Arabic).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodologies, techniques
    • 2.1Methodologies
    • 2.2Data characteristics
    • 2.3Software used
    • 2.4Languages represented in the graphs
  • 3.Projections of data to the models
    • 3.1Constructing phylogenetic trees
    • 3.2The NeighborNet networks
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (33)
References
Al-Jallad, Ahmad. 2015. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atkinson, Quentin, Geoff Nichols, David Welch & Russell Gray. 2005. “From Words to Dates: Water into Wine, Mathemagic or Phylogenetic Inference?” Transactions of the Philological Society 103.193–219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atkinson, Quentin, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti, Simon J. Grenhill & Mark Pagel. 2008. “Languages Evolve in Punctuational Burst”. Science 319.588. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ben Hamed, Mahé, Pierre Darlu & Nathalie Vallée. 2005. “On Cladistic Reconstruction of Linguistic Trees through Vowel Data”. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 12.79–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cabrera, Vicente M, Khaled K. Abu-Amero, José M. Larruga & Ana M. González. 2009. “The Arabian Peninsula: Gate for Human Migrations Out of Africa or Cul-de-Sac? A Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeographic Perspective”. The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia: Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics, ed. by Michael D. Petraglia and Jeffrey I. Rose, 79–87. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Delmestri, Antonella & Nello Cristianini. 2010. Linguistic Phylogenetic Inference by PAM-like Matrices. University of Trento, Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science. Technical Report #DISI-10-058. Trento 2010.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Diakonoff, Igor M. 1965. Semito-Hamitic Languages. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Faber, Alice. 1997. “Genetic Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages”. The Semitic Languages, ed. by Robert Hetzron, 3–15. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gai, Amikaim. 1994. “Reflections on the Classification of the Semitic Languages”. Orbis 37.135–144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gaillard-Corvaglia, Antonella, Jean-Léo Leonard & Pierre Darlu. 2007. “Testing Cladistics on Dialect Networks and Phyla (Gallo-Romance and Southern Italo-Romance)”. Proceedings of Ninth Meeting of the ACL Special Interest Group in Computational Morphology and Phonology, 23–30. Prague: ACL. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghosh, Jayanta K., Mohan Delampady & Tapas Samanta. 2006. An Introduction to Bayesian Analysis: Theory and Methods. New York: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gray, Russell D. & Quentin D. Atkinson. 2003. “Language-Tree Divergence Times Support the Anatolian Theory of Indo-European Origin”. Nature 426.435–439. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heggarty, Paul, Warren Maguire & April McMahon. 2010. “Splits or Waves? Trees or Webs? Network Analysis of Language Divergence?” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 12.3829–3843. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holden, Clare J. 2002. “Bantu Language Trees Reflect the Spread of Farming across Sub-Saharan Africa: A Maximum Parsimony Analysis”. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 269.793–799. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Holden, Clare J. & Russell D. Gray. 2006. “Rapid Radiation, Borrowing and Dialect Continua in the Bantu Languages”. The Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages, ed. by Peter Forster and Collin Renfrew, 19–31. Cambridge: The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huehnergard, John & Aaron D. Rubin. 2011. “Phyla and Waves: Models of Classification of the Semitic Languages”. The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, ed. by Stefan Weninger in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck & Janet C. E. Watson, 259–278. Berlin & Boston: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huson, Daniel H. & David Bryant. 2006. “Application of Phylogenetic Networks in Evolutionary Studies”. Molecular Biology and Evolution 23:2.254–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jackman, Simon. 2009. Bayesian Analysis for the Social Sciences. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kienast, Burkhart. 2001. Historische semitische Sprachwissenschaft. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kitchen, Andrew, Christopher Ehret, Shiferaw Asseffa & Connie J. Mulligan. 2009. “Bayesian Phylogenetic Analysis of Semitic Languages Identifies an Early Bronze Age Origin of Semitic in the Near East”. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276.2703–2710. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kitching, Ian J., Peter L. Forey, Christopher J. Humphries & David M. Williams. 1998. Cladistics: The Theory and Practice of Parsimony Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kogan, Leonid. 2015. Genealogical Classification of Semitic. The Lexical Isoglosses. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levy, Dan & Lior Pachter. 2011. “The Neighbor-Net Algorithm”. Advances in Applied Mathematics 47.240–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lupyan, Gary & Rick Dale. 2010. “Language Structure Is Partly Determined by Social Structure”. PLoS ONE 5:1.e8559. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maddison, W. P. & D. R. Maddison. 2010. Mesquite: A Modular System for Evolutionary Analysis. Version 2.73 [URL]
Moscati, Sabatino, Anton Spitaler, Edward Ullendorf & Wolfram von Soden. 1964. An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages: Phonology and Morphology. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nicholls, Geoff K. & Russell D. Gray. 2006. “Quantifying Uncertainty in a Stochastic Model of Vocabulary Evolution”. The Phylogenetic Methods and the Prehistory of Languages, ed. by Peter Forster and Collin Renfrew, 161–171. Cambridge: The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rexová, Kateřina, Yvonne Bastin, & Daniel Frynta. 2006. “Cladistic Analysis of Bantu Languages: A New Tree Based on Combined Lexical and Grammatical Data”. Naturwissenschaften 93.189–194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rexová, Kateřina, Daniel Frynta, and Jan Zrzavý. 2003. “Cladistic Analysis of Languages: Indo-European Classification Based on Lexicostatistical Data”. Cladistics 19.120–127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ringe, Don, Tandy Warnow, & Ann Taylor. 2002. “Indo-European and Computational Cladistics”. Transactions of the Philological Society 100.59–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rubin, Aaron D. 2010. The Mehri Language of Oman. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
WALS. 2005. Haspelmath, Martin, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil & Bernard Comrie. 2005. World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zemánek, Petr. 2017. Complementary Dataset for Semitic Languages Classification [Data set]. Zenodo.
CrossRef DOI logo with hyperlink to permanent DOI
Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Greenhill, Simon
2023. Language Phylogenies. In Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution, ► pp. 726 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue