Cysouw, Michael; Dediu, Dan; Moran, Steven (2012). Comment on “Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa”. Science, 335(6069):657.
We show that Atkinson’s (Reports, 15 April 2011, p. 346) intriguing proposal—that global linguistic diversity supports a single language origin in Africa—is an artifact of using suboptimal data, biased methodology, and unjustified assumptions. We criticize his approach using more suitable data, and we additionally provide new results suggesting a more complex scenario for the emergence of global linguistic diversity.
We show that Atkinson’s (Reports, 15 April 2011, p. 346) intriguing proposal—that global linguistic diversity supports a single language origin in Africa—is an artifact of using suboptimal data, biased methodology, and unjustified assumptions. We criticize his approach using more suitable data, and we additionally provide new results suggesting a more complex scenario for the emergence of global linguistic diversity.
| Item Type: | Journal Article, refereed, further contribution |
|---|---|
| Communities & Collections: | 06 Faculty of Arts > Department of Comparative Language Science |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 490 Other languages
890 Other literatures 410 Linguistics |
| Scopus Subject Areas: | Health Sciences > Multidisciplinary |
| Language: | English |
| Date: | 2012 |
| Deposited On: | 13 Nov 2013 08:10 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jan 2022 02:01 |
| Publisher: | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| ISSN: | 0036-8075 |
| OA Status: | Closed |
| Free access at: | Publisher DOI. An embargo period may apply. |
| Publisher DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1208841 |
Cysouw, Michael