Vol. 41:1 (2024) ► pp.1–45
Divergence-time estimation in Indo-European
The case of Latin
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).
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
- 2.1Tree topology
- 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
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.22031.gol