Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, HSE University, Moscow, Russia.
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
PLoS One. 2022 May 26;17(5):e0265460. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265460. eCollection 2022.
We study the correlation between phylogenetic and geographic distances for the languages of the Andic branch of the East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) language family. For several alternative phylogenies, we find that geographic distances correlate with linguistic divergence. Notably, qualitative classifications show a better fit with geography than cognacy-based phylogenies. We interpret this result as follows: The better fit may be due to implicit geographic bias in qualitative classifications. We conclude that approaches to classification other than those based on cognacy run a risk to implicitly include geography and geography-related factors as one basis of genealogical classifications.
我们研究了东亚美尼亚语系（纳赫-达格斯坦语族）中的安德语支语言的系统发育和地理距离之间的相关性。对于几种替代的系统发育，我们发现地理距离与语言分歧相关。值得注意的是，定性分类比基于同源性的系统发育更符合地理情况。我们将这一结果解释为：更好的拟合可能是由于定性分类中存在隐含的地理偏差。我们的结论是，除了基于同源性的分类方法之外，其他分类方法都有可能隐含地将地理和地理相关因素作为谱系分类的一个依据。
