ABSTRACT

The words of a language are randomly replaced over time by new ones, but it has long been known that words corresponding to some items (meanings) are less frequently replaced than others. Usually, the rate of replacement for a given item is not directly observable, but it is inferred by the estimated stability which, on the contrary, is observable. This strategy goes back a long way in the lexicostatistical literature, nevertheless nothing ensures that it gives the correct answer. The family of Romance languages allows for a direct test of the estimated stabilities against the replacement rates since the proto-language (Late Classical Latin or Vulgar Latin) is more or less known, and the replacement rates can be explicitly computed. The output of the test is threefold: i) we prove that the standard approach which infers the replacement rates through the estimated stabilities is sound; ii) we are able to rewrite the fundamental formula of Glottochronology for a non universal replacement rate (depending on the item); iii) we provide unquestionable evidence that the stability ranking is far from being the same for different families of languages. This last result is also supported by comparison with the Malagasy family of dialects.

摘要

一种语言的单词会随着时间的流逝随机地被新单词替换，但是众所周知，与某些项目（含义）相对应的单词替换的频率要比其他单词少。通常，不能直接观察到给定项目的替换率，但是可以通过估计的稳定性来推断，相反，可以观察到。这种策略在词汇统计文献中可以追溯到很长的一段路，尽管如此，也无法确保它能给出正确的答案。罗曼语族可以直接根据替代率测试估计的稳定性，因为或多或少知道了原始语言（古典拉丁语或粗俗拉丁语），并且可以明确计算替代率。测试的输出是三倍：i）我们证明通过估计的稳定性推断替代率的标准方法是合理的；ii）对于非通用替换率，我们可以重写声母年代学的基本公式（取决于项目）；iii）我们提供了毫无疑问的证据，表明不同语言家族的稳定性排名远非相同。与马达加斯加方言家族的比较也支持了最后的结果。