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Article published In: Diachronica
Vol. 41:1 (2024) ► pp.1–45

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Divergence-time estimation in Indo-European

The case of Latin

ORCiD logo with link | University of California, Los Angeles
Published online: 16 April 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22031.gol
Abstract
Divergence-time estimation is one of the most important endeavors in historical linguistics. Its importance is matched only by its difficulty. As Bayesian methods of divergence-time estimation have become more common over the past two decades, a number of critical issues have come to the fore, including model sensitivity, the dependence of root-age estimates on uncertain interior-node ages, and the relationship between ancient languages and their modern counterparts. This study addresses these issues in an investigation of a particularly fraught case within Indo-European: the diversification of Latin into the Romance languages. The results of this study support a gradualist account of their formation that most likely began after 300  CE. They also bolster the view that Classical Latin is a sampled ancestor of the Romance languages (i.e., it lies along the branch leading to the Romance languages).
Résumé
L’estimation de l’âge des langues est l’une des entreprises les plus importantes en linguistique historique, mais aussi l’une des plus difficiles. Au cours des vingt dernières années, les méthodes bayésiennes ont gagné en importance dans cette estimation. Cependant, plusieurs problématiques cruciales ont émergé, telles que la sensibilité des modèles, la dépendance des estimations de l’âge des racines à l’incertitude de l’estimation de nœuds internes, ainsi que la relation entre les langues anciennes et contemporaines. Cette étude aborde ces problématiques en se concentrant sur un cas particulièrement complexe au sein de la famille indo-européenne : l’évolution du latin vers les langues romanes. Les résultats obtenus vont dans le sens d’une approche gradualiste de la formation des langues romanes, en suggérant un début probable après l’an 300 de notre ère. De plus, ils confirment clairement l’idée que le latin classique est un ancêtre direct des langues romanes, étant positionné sur la branche menant à ces langues.
Zusammenfassung
Die Bestimmung des Alters von Sprachen ist nicht nur eines der zentralen Anliegen der historischen Linguistik, sondern auch eines der anspruchsvollsten. In den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten haben sich bayesianische Methoden zur Altersschätzung von Sprachen immer weiter verbreitet. Mit dieser zunehmenden Verbreitung sind eine Reihe kritischer Fragen in den Vordergrund getreten. Hierzu zählen die Sensitivität der Modelle, die Abhängigkeit der Altersschätzungen der Grundsprachen von unsicheren Altersangaben der Innenknoten sowie die Beziehung zwischen alten und modernen Sprachen. Diese Studie untersucht diese Fragen anhand eines besonders herausfordernden Falls innerhalb des Indogermanischen, nämlich der Aufspaltung des Lateinischen in die romanischen Sprachen. Die Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung stützen eine allmähliche Entstehung der romanischen Sprachen, die höchstwahrscheinlich nach dem Jahr 300 n. Chr. begann. Sie liefern auch starke Belege dafür, dass das klassische Latein ein direkter Vorläufer der romanischen Sprachen ist (d.h., es liegt auf dem Zweig, der zu den romanischen Sprachen führt).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Three issues
    • 1.2The diversification of Latin
    • 1.3Main claims
    • 1.4Outline
  • 2.Previous research
    • 2.1Tree topology
      • 2.1.1Results from Bayesian phylogenetic studies
    • 2.2Divergence times
      • 2.2.1Results from Bayesian phylogenetic studies
    • 2.3The ancestry question
      • 2.3.1What is direct ancestry?
      • 2.3.2The sibling hypothesis
      • 2.3.3The most-recent common ancestor hypothesis
      • 2.3.4The sampled-ancestor hypothesis
  • 3.Methods
    • 3.1Clock models
    • 3.2Character models
    • 3.3Tree models
      • 3.3.1Fossilized birth-death models
      • 3.3.2Episodic models
    • 3.4Model comparison
    • 3.5Posterior predictive simulation
    • 3.6Software
  • 4.Data
    • 4.1The age of Classical Latin
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Model sensitivity
    • 5.2Model comparison
    • 5.3Divergence times
    • 5.4Tree topology
    • 5.5Model adequacy
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Tree topology
    • 6.2Divergence times
    • 6.3The diversification of Latin and Roman history
    • 6.4The ancestry question redux
      • 6.4.1The distribution of basic vocabulary in Latin
      • 6.4.2Shared archaisms in Romance
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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2025. Computer modelling of innovations relative to Latin in contemporary Romance dialects. Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics 11:3 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Cathcart, Chundra
2024. Frederik Hartmann: Germanic phylogeny . Folia Linguistica 58:s45-s1 ► pp. 325 ff. DOI logo

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