A Combined Comparative and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Chapacuran Language Family

Abstract

The Chapacuran language family, with three extant members and nine historically attested lects, has yet to be classified following modern standards in historical linguistics. This paper presents an internal classification of these languages by combining both the traditional comparative method (CM) and Bayesian phylogenetic inference (BPI). We identify multiple systematic sound correspondences and 285 cognate sets of basic vocabulary using the available documentation. These allow us to reconstruct a large portion of the Proto-Chapacuran phonemic inventory and identify tentative major subgroupings. The cognate sets form the input for the BPI analysis, which uses a stochastic Continuous-Time Markov Chain to model the change of these cognate sets over time. We test various models of lexical substitution and evolutionary clocks, and use ethnohistorical information and data collection dates to calibrate the resulting trees. The CM and BPI analyses produce largely congruent results, suggesting a division of the family into three different clades.

Computational phylogenetics and the classification of South American languages

“…One way in which Birchall et al (2016) differs from most earlier Bayesian phylogenetic analyses (e.g., Gray et al's (2009) classification of Austronesian) is that the characters analyzed were based on cognate sets rather than root-meaning sets. This approach was first implemented in Michael et al's (2015) classification of the Tupí-Guaraní, the largest subgroup of the Tupian family.…”

“…Maximum clade credibility (MCC) tree summary of posterior probability distribution of the relaxed clock CTMC analysis of the Chapakuran family fromBirchall et al (2016).Significantly, the authors also include a classification based on the comparative method that relies on a reconstruction of the Proto-Chapakuran segmental inventory, with subgroups defined by probative shared sound changes. Crucially, the phylogenetic classification is consistent with the sound change-based classification, although the former is considerably more detailed.…”

Mexico’s Biocultural Diversity in Peril

“…Of course, some words do enter languages by way of diffusion, or "borrowing" from other cultural sources (Campbell, 1997), and these instances are comparable to horizontal gene transmission in the scheme of biodiversity assessment and phylogenetics. Nonetheless, just as the historical evolution of species can be inferred by phylogenetic analysis, so the history of linguistic diversity can be estimated by phylogenetics (e.g., Bouckaert et al, 2012;Birchall, Dunn, & Greenhill, 2016;Gray et al, 2018). In both cases, the phylogenies can be overlain by areas of endemicity to produce dated phylogeographic reconstructions.…”

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“…Należy zaznaczyć, że jedynie Wari' wciąż mówią w swoim rdzennym języku. Języki moré i oro win są uznawane za silnie zagrożone wyginięciem (Angenot 2002;Birchall, Dunn, Greenhill 2016). Indianie Wari' są najlepiej poznanym ludem z rodziny językowej chapacura pod względem etnograficznym i historycznym (Mason 1977;Meireles 1989;Von Graeve 1989;Conklin 2001;Vilaça 2010Vilaça , 2016.…”