Language trees support the express-train sequence of Austronesian expansion

Russell D. Gray () and Fiona M. Jordan
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Russell D. Gray: University of Auckland
Fiona M. Jordan: University of Auckland

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6790, 1052-1055

Abstract: Abstract Languages, like molecules, document evolutionary history. Darwin1 observed that evolutionary change in languages greatly resembled the processes of biological evolution: inheritance from a common ancestor and convergent evolution operate in both. Despite many suggestions2,3,4, few attempts have been made to apply the phylogenetic methods used in biology to linguistic data. Here we report a parsimony analysis of a large language data set. We use this analysis to test competing hypotheses—the “express-train”5 and the “entangled-bank”6,7 models—for the colonization of the Pacific by Austronesian-speaking peoples. The parsimony analysis of a matrix of 77 Austronesian languages with 5,185 lexical items produced a single most-parsimonious tree. The express-train model was converted into an ordered geographical character and mapped onto the language tree. We found that the topology of the language tree was highly compatible with the express-train model.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35016575

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