Symposium: Time Depths of American Linguistic Groupings

Abstract

SOME time depths of American Indian groupings are set forth here in Table 1. A supplement, Table 2, gives additional details on internal relationships within the Salishan stock. These time depths have been calculated from percentages of agreement in noncultural vocabulary, according to the method known as glottochronology or lexical statistics which is described in articles cited in the bibliography. The material was prepared under the Language Divergence Project sponsored by the Social Science Research Council of Columbia University. The aim has been in general to give time depths for all language groupings where a percentage of agreement was available to the compiler either in published sources or in research completed though not yet published. The classification of families and stocks follows established lines except for the recognition of some recently demonstrated groupings, to wit, the Huavemayan complex, bringing together Mayan, Zoquean, Totonacan and Huave; and the connection of Jicaque with Hokan. On the other hand, MixeZoque is not included in Penutian, as Sapir and Freelander have proposed, because it seems to have a closer relationship with the Huavemayan languages. This of course is not to deny that Penutian and Huavemayan are related at a more remote time depth. All the time depths given here have to be regarded as provisional in greater or lesser degree. This follows, first, from the fact that the lexicostatistic method has not yet been developed to its maximum reliability (it cannot be until more research has been done on control cases); second, the test lists are much too limited in some cases; and, finally, the phonological formulas and structural reconstruction necessary for maximally reliable identification of cognates in each pair of languages has not been sufficiently worked out. Despite these limitations, it seems desirable to publish a list of tentative dates so that the provisional determinations may be known pending eventual verification or improvement.