Splits or waves? Trees or webs?

What is it about?

Linguists represent divergence within a language family in terms of either a ‘splits’ model, corresponding to a branching family tree structure, or the wave model, resulting in a (dialect) continuum. Recent phylogenetic analyses have assumed the former as a viable idealization also for the latter. But the real world scenarios differ: speaker populations either separated by migrations, or expanding over continuous territory. This paper reviews 'network'-type approaches to language prehistories.

Featured Image