A note on statistical methods in comparative linguistics

Abstract

It is desirable to distinguish between lexicostatistics as a means of proving relationships between languages or linguistic groups not previously known to be related, and glottochronology as a means of measuring the time depths of separations between languages or linguistic groups already known to be related. For proof of relationships structure statistics, i.e. the application of statistical methods to comparisons of structural elements, needs to be stressed as an indispensable complement of lexicostatistics. This is illustrated with tests.