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Does lateral transmission obscure inheritance in hunter-gatherer languages?
Claire Bowern1, Patience Epps, Russell Gray
1Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America. claire.bowern@yale.edu
Plos One
|October 8, 2011
Summary
Quantitative phylogenetic approaches are increasingly used to study language evolution. This study debunks the myth that hunter-gatherer languages have high borrowing rates, finding they are generally low and comparable to agriculturalist languages.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Computational Linguistics
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Phylogenetic approaches are used to study language evolution.
- Concerns exist about phylogenetic methods' suitability for languages with high rates of borrowing (lateral transmission).
- Hunter-gatherer languages are often presumed to have high borrowing rates, potentially limiting phylogenetic analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically evaluate borrowing rates in hunter-gatherer languages.
- To investigate factors influencing borrowing rates, such as subsistence, demographics, and social structures.
- To compare borrowing rates between hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist languages.
Main Methods:
- Collected basic vocabulary (204 items) from 122 hunter-gatherer and small-scale cultivator languages across Australia, Amazonia, and California/Great Basin.
- Coded words for etymological status to calculate loan rates.
- Analyzed loan rate variability in relation to linguistic area, subsistence, population characteristics, and compared with 41 agriculturalist languages.
Main Results:
- Borrowing rates in hunter-gatherer languages were generally low (mean 5.06%, median 2.49%), contrary to prevailing assumptions.
- Amazonian languages showed uniformly very low borrowing rates (<4%).
- Borrowing rates did not differ significantly between hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist languages; local factors influenced variability.
Conclusions:
- The assumption of high borrowing rates in hunter-gatherer languages is a myth.
- Phylogenetic approaches are suitable for studying the evolution of hunter-gatherer languages.
- Language evolution, including borrowing, is influenced by local factors more than broad generalizations.
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