Background
The standard method for assessing language relationships has been the comparative method. However this has a number of limitations. Not all linguistic material is suitable as input and there are issues of the linguistic levels on which the method operates. The reconstructed languages are idealized and different scholars can produce different results. Language family trees are often used in conjunction with the method and "borrowings" must be excluded from the data, which is difficult when borrowing is within a family. It is often claimed that the method is limited in the time depth over which it can operate. The method is difficult to apply and there is no independent test. Thus alternative methods have been sought that have a formalised method, quantify the relationships and can be tested.
Probably the first published quantitative historical linguistics study was by Sapir in 1916, while Kroeber and Chretien in 1937 investigated nine Indo-European (IE) languages using 74 morphological and phonological features (extended in 1939 by the inclusion of Hittite). Ross in 1950 carried out an investigation into the theoretical basis for such studies. Swadesh, using word lists, developed lexicostatistics and glottochronology in a series of papers published in the early 1950s but these methods were widely criticised though some of the criticisms were seen as unjustified by other scholars. Embleton published a book on "Statistics in Historical Linguistics" in 1986 which reviewed previous work and extended the glottochronological method. Dyen, Kruskal and Black carried out a study of the lexicostatistical method on a large IE database in 1992.
In the mid-1990s a group at Pennsylvania University computerised the comparative method and used a different IE database with 20 ancient languages. In the biological field several software programs were then developed which could have application to historical linguistics. In particular a group at the University of Auckland developed a method that gave controversially old dates for IE languages. A conference on "Time-depth in Historical Linguistics" was held in August 1999 at which many applications of quantitative methods were discussed. Subsequently many papers have been published on studies of various language groups as well as comparisons of the methods.
Read more about this topic: Quantitative Comparative Linguistics
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