Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland
Abstract Sicoli & Holton (2014) (PLoS ONE 9:3, e91722) use computational phylogenetics to argue that linguistic data from the putative, but likely, Dene-Yeniseian macro-family are better compatible with a homeland in Beringia (i.e., northeastern Siberia plus northwestern Alaska) than with one in...
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crjohnbenjaminsp:10.1075/dia.17038.yan 2024-06-09T07:50:11+00:00 Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland Yanovich, Igor Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.17038.yan http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/dia.17038.yan.pdf en eng John Benjamins Publishing Company https://benjamins.com/content/customers/rights Diachronica volume 37, issue 3, page 410-446 ISSN 0176-4225 1569-9714 journal-article 2020 crjohnbenjaminsp https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.17038.yan 2024-05-15T13:26:46Z Abstract Sicoli & Holton (2014) (PLoS ONE 9:3, e91722) use computational phylogenetics to argue that linguistic data from the putative, but likely, Dene-Yeniseian macro-family are better compatible with a homeland in Beringia (i.e., northeastern Siberia plus northwestern Alaska) than with one in central Siberia or deeper Asia. I show that a more careful examination of the data invalidates this conclusion: in fact, linguistic data do not support Beringia as the homeland. In the course of showing this, I discuss, without requiring a deep mathematical background, a number of methodological issues concerning computational phylogenetic analyses of linguistic data and drawing inferences from them. The aim is to contribute to making computational phylogenetics less of a black box for historical linguists. I conclude with a brief overview of the current evidence bearing on the Dene-Yeniseian homeland from linguistics, archaeology, folklore studies and genetics, and suggest current best practice for linguistic phylogenetics, the use of which would have helped to avoid some of the problems in Sicoli and Holton’s Dene-Yeniseian study, and in turn the percolation of those problems into subsequent synthetic interdisciplinary research. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alaska Beringia Siberia John Benjamins Publishing Company Diachronica 37 3 410 446 |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company |
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crjohnbenjaminsp |
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English |
description |
Abstract Sicoli & Holton (2014) (PLoS ONE 9:3, e91722) use computational phylogenetics to argue that linguistic data from the putative, but likely, Dene-Yeniseian macro-family are better compatible with a homeland in Beringia (i.e., northeastern Siberia plus northwestern Alaska) than with one in central Siberia or deeper Asia. I show that a more careful examination of the data invalidates this conclusion: in fact, linguistic data do not support Beringia as the homeland. In the course of showing this, I discuss, without requiring a deep mathematical background, a number of methodological issues concerning computational phylogenetic analyses of linguistic data and drawing inferences from them. The aim is to contribute to making computational phylogenetics less of a black box for historical linguists. I conclude with a brief overview of the current evidence bearing on the Dene-Yeniseian homeland from linguistics, archaeology, folklore studies and genetics, and suggest current best practice for linguistic phylogenetics, the use of which would have helped to avoid some of the problems in Sicoli and Holton’s Dene-Yeniseian study, and in turn the percolation of those problems into subsequent synthetic interdisciplinary research. |
author2 |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Yanovich, Igor |
spellingShingle |
Yanovich, Igor Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland |
author_facet |
Yanovich, Igor |
author_sort |
Yanovich, Igor |
title |
Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland |
title_short |
Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland |
title_full |
Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland |
title_fullStr |
Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the Dene-Yeniseian homeland |
title_sort |
phylogenetic linguistic evidence and the dene-yeniseian homeland |
publisher |
John Benjamins Publishing Company |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/dia.17038.yan http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/dia.17038.yan.pdf |
genre |
Alaska Beringia Siberia |
genre_facet |
Alaska Beringia Siberia |
op_source |
Diachronica volume 37, issue 3, page 410-446 ISSN 0176-4225 1569-9714 |
op_rights |
https://benjamins.com/content/customers/rights |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.17038.yan |
container_title |
Diachronica |
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37 |
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3 |
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410 |
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446 |
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1801383425607729152 |