How close is one language to another?

Title
How close is one language to another?
Publication Date
2013
Author(s)
van Driem, George
Editor
Editor(s): Mark Jobling, Edward Hollox, Matthew Hurles, Toomas Kivisild, Chris Tyler-Smith
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Garland Science
Place of publication
New York, United States of America
Edition
2
UNE publication id
une:16818
Abstract
Just how closely is English related to Danish, or to Gujarati? The idea of putting a number on the distance between languages was first explored in 1831 by Samuel Rafinesque, who invented lexicostatistics in order to win a competition in Paris of the Société de Géographie, to determine the origin of Asiatic negritos. Since there were no other contenders, he was awarded a 'médaille d'encouragement' worth only 100 francs rather than the advertised gold medal of 1000 francs. Rafinesque's negative finding showed the languages of disparate negrito peoples to be unrelated. It was never published, but his method was popularized by Jules Dumont d'Urville, who headed the jury.
Link
Citation
Human Evolutionary Genetics, p. 9-9
ISBN
9780815341482
Start page
9
End page
9

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