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Statistical Measurement of Linguistic Relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Alvar Ellegård
Alvar Ellegård*
Affiliation:
University of Göteborg
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Abstract

[Linguistic relationship has been measured statistically by means of the product-moment correlation coefficient, r. The linguistic meaning of various forms of this coefficient is discussed on the basis of a simplified model. It is maintained that the most satisfactory statistic measures degree of correspondence or similarity rather than relationship in the genetic sense. When applied to Indo-European data, the statistic yields results in good agreement with common philological judgment. Problems of significance are discussed. Finally it is concluded that the statistical technique will both require and help to establish a taxonomy of languages.]

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 35 , Issue 2-Part1: April-June , June 1959, pp. 131 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © 1959 by Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 A. L. Kroeber and C. D. Chrétien, Quantitative classification of Indo-European languages, Lg. 13.83-103 (1937).

2 Kroeber and Chrétien, The statistical technique and Hittite, Lg. 15.69-71 (1939).

3 C. Douglas Chrétien, The quantitative method for determining linguistic relationships : Interpretation of results and tests of significance, UCPL 1:2.11-20 (1943).

4 C. Douglas Chrétien, Culture element distributions: XXV. Reliability of statistical procedures and results, Anthropological records 8:5 (Los Angeles, 1945).

5 A. S. C. Ross, Philological probability problems, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society B. 12.19-59 (1950).

6 Ross 49-51.

7 Ross 51-3.

8 The statistical methods used in this article are generally taken from G. U. Yule and M. G. Kendall, An introduction to the theory of statistics 14 (London, 1950).

9 Adapted from Yule-Kendall §2.1.

10 Yule-Kendall §11.34 and §2.13.

11 Chrétien (1943) 9.

12 Kroeber and Chrétien (1939) 70-71.

13 A test exhibiting the close ‘genetic’ relationship of Albanian and Armenian was also developed by D. G. Kendall in his discussion of Ross's paper. Ross himself was inclined to accept this result; see Ross 42, 58.

14 Yule-Kendall §17.4.

15 Yule-Kendall §17.7.

16 Yule-Kendall §20.16.

17 Yule-Kendall §20.16, example 20.4.

18 Yule-Kendall §17.28.

19 Chrétien (1943) 17.

20 Ross 27.

21 Such a procedure is used by Morris Swadesh, Archaeological and linguistic chronology of Indo-European groups, AA 55.349-52 (1953). It seems to me that Swadesh is somewhat rash in assuming a uniform rate of development.