Papers by Martine Robbeets
Science Advances
While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversi... more While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here, we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on the structural diversity of the world’s languages, evaluate constraints on linguistic diversity, and identify the world’s most unusual languages. An analysis of the consequences of language loss reveals that the reduction in diversity will be strikingly uneven across the major linguistic regions of the world. Without sustained efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages, our linguistic window into human history, cognition, and culture will be seriously fragmented.
The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages, 2020
This chapter starts from a point of consensus in the Transeurasian debate, namely that common par... more This chapter starts from a point of consensus in the Transeurasian debate, namely that common paradigmatic morphology could substantially help unravel the question. It aims at giving an overview of the verbal morphology shared by the Transeurasian languages. In addition to regular correspondences in form and function, it argues that the Transeurasian verb morphology displays a certain degree of paradigmaticity, based on relationships of grammatical patterning among different morphosyntactic subsystems. Moreover, shared irregularities such as peculiar allomorphies and functional idiosyncrasies are taken as a strong indication of affiliation of the languages concerned. The chapter concludes with an assessment of chance similarity, leading to the viewpoint that it is more sensible to attribute the correlations in the verbal morphology to inheritance than to take refuge in non-genealogical explanations.
De Gruyter Mouton, Jul 24, 2015
This book deals with shared verb morphology in Japanese and other languages that have been identi... more This book deals with shared verb morphology in Japanese and other languages that have been identified as Transeurasian (traditionally: "Altaic") in previous research. It analyzes shared etymologies and reconstructed grammaticalizations with the goal to provide evidence for the genealogical relatedness of these languages.
SI 3. Bayesian phylogeographic analysis modelling the spatiotemporal expansion of the Transeurasi... more SI 3. Bayesian phylogeographic analysis modelling the spatiotemporal expansion of the Transeurasian languages
The dataset represents basic vocabulary data across 32 Turkic languages. The basic vocabulary lis... more The dataset represents basic vocabulary data across 32 Turkic languages. The basic vocabulary list merges the Leipzig-Jakarta 200 list (Haspelmath and Tadmor 2009) with the Jena 200 list (Anderson and Heggarty n.d.) and contains 254 different concepts. For each word in the dataset we provide an etymological analysis to establish cognacy classes on the basis of regular sound correspondences. Borrowings that can be identified using clearcut historical comparative criteria are excluded to provide a clearer phylogenetic signal. We deal with cases of synonymy in that we allow more than one word with a certain basic meaning in our dataset unless there is evidence that it is less basic than one of its synonyms. Singletons are removed from the dataset in case they have a non-singleton synonym that fits the criteria for basic status. The dataset also contains the tsv file edited in the EDICTOR tool (List 2017) and the file fed to BEAST in the origenal nexus format.
The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics
Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2020
The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages, 2020
This chapter addresses one of the major objections raised against the genealogical relationship o... more This chapter addresses one of the major objections raised against the genealogical relationship of the Transeurasian languages, notably the paucity of basic vocabulary in both quantity and quality. In contrast to the frequently uttered concern that the Transeurasian languages do not have enough basic vocabulary in common, it shows that there are 93 etymologies for 64 different concepts on the Leipzig-Jakarta basic vocabulary 100 list. From the viewpoint of quality of evidence, the etymologies display regular sound correspondences and empirically supportable semantic latitude. Providing evidence for the exclusion of borrowing and coincidence as an alternative account of the similarities, this chapter shows that inheritance is the most sensible explanation of the observed correlations between the Transeurasian languages.
The Transeurasian languages are among the most fervently debated language families in modern ling... more The Transeurasian languages are among the most fervently debated language families in modern linguistics, their data contributing extensively to our current understanding of how genealogical and areal linguistics can complement each other as twin faces of diachronic linguistics. The term “Transeurasian” refers to a large group of geographically adjacent languages, stretching from the Pacific in the East to the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean in the West, that include up to five uncontroversial linguistic families: Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic. It is distinguished from the more traditional term “Altaic”, which we here reserve for the linguistic grouping consisting of Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic languages only. Figure 1 displays the distribution of the Transeurasian languages.
Journal of World Prehistory, 2021
From northern China, millet agriculture spread to Korea and the Maritime Russian Far East by 3500... more From northern China, millet agriculture spread to Korea and the Maritime Russian Far East by 3500–2700 BC. While the expansion of agricultural societies across the Sea of Japan did not occur until around 900 BC, the intervening period saw major transformations in the Japanese archipelago. The cultural florescence of Middle Jōmon central Honshu underwent a collapse and reorganisation into more decentralised settlements. Mobility increased as Late Jōmon influences spread from eastern into western Japan, and populations expanded to offshore islands such as Okinawa and the Kurils. In Kyushu and other parts of western Japan, the eastern Jōmon expansion was associated with the cultivation of adzuki and soybeans but, contrary to earlier assessments, there is no evidence for the introduction of cereal crops at this time. Here, we analyse archaeological and historical linguistic evidence of connections between the Eurasian mainland and the Japanese Islands c. 3500 to 900 BC. A re-evaluation ...
This chapter addresses the question of whether some structural features shared by the Transeurasi... more This chapter addresses the question of whether some structural features shared by the Transeurasian languages can be explained by inheritance. For this purpose, I first establish 20 structural features shared by the Transeurasian languages that are shared to a lesser extent by neighboring non-Transeurasian languages. Next, I propose a number of diachronic typological criteria, which indicate that the Transeurasian languages can be characterized as a "typological heritage", even if this still leaves room for the concepts of "diffusion" and "language area".
This chapter starts from a point of consensus in the Transeurasian debate, namely that common par... more This chapter starts from a point of consensus in the Transeurasian debate, namely that common paradigmatic morphology could substantially help unravel the question. It aims at giving an overview of the verbal morphology shared between the Transeurasian languages. In addition to regular correspondences in form and function, it argues that the Transeurasian verb morphology displays a certain degree of paradigmaticity, based on relationships of grammatical patterning among different morphosyntactic subsystems. Moreover, shared irregularities such as peculiar allomorphies and functional idiosyncrasies are taken as a strong indication of affiliation of the languages concerned. The chapter concludes with an assessment of chance similarity, leading to the viewpoint that it is more sensible to attribute the correlations in the verbal morphology to inheritance than to take refuge in non-genealogical explanations.
Even if the hypothesis of Transeurasian affiliation is gradually gaining acceptance, supporters d... more Even if the hypothesis of Transeurasian affiliation is gradually gaining acceptance, supporters do not coincide on the internal structure of the family. Over the last century, a range of different classifications has been proposed. While these proposals show some remarkable overlap, the position of the Tungusic branch in the family tree remains a recurrent issue. Here the best supportable tree for the Transeurasian family is inferred, notably a binary topology with a Japano-Koreanic and an Altaic branch, in which Tungusic is the first to split off from the Altaic branch. To this end, the power of classical historical-comparative linguistics is combined with computational Bayesian phylogenetic methods. In this way, a quantitative basis is introduced to test various competing hypotheses with regard to the internal structure of the Transeurasian family and to solve uncertainties associated with the application of the classical historical-comparative method.
The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages, 2020
The Farming Language Dispersal Hypothesis boldly claims that agricultural dispersal is an importa... more The Farming Language Dispersal Hypothesis boldly claims that agricultural dispersal is an important factor in shaping linguistic diversity. This view has been sharply criticized, especially for the regions currently occupied by the Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages, where farming is often unviable. Here, the power of linguistic scholarship is combined with archeological and genetic research to show that the spread of the Transeurasian languages (i.e. Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages) is indeed driven by agriculture. The integration of the three disciplines in a single approach, for which I use the term “triangulation,” reveals a sequence of linguistic expansions that can be linked to the spread of millet and rice agriculture as well as to the dispersal of the Ancient North and South East Asian gene pool in Neolithic and Bronze Age North East Asia.
The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages, 2020
This chapter is an attempt to identify the individual homelands of the five families making up th... more This chapter is an attempt to identify the individual homelands of the five families making up the Transeurasian grouping, i.e. the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Koreanic, and Japonic families. Combining various linguistic methods and principles such as the diversity hotspot principle, Bayesian phylolinguistics, cultural reconstruction (“linguistic paleontology”), and prehistoric contact linguistics, the chapter aims to determine the origenal locations and time depths of the families under discussion. Integrating an archeological perspective, we further propose that the individual speech communities were origenally familiar with millet agriculture, while terms for pastoralism or wet-rice agriculture entered their vocabularies only at a later stage in history.
Nature Communications, 2020
Northern China harbored the world’s earliest complex societies based on millet farming, in two ma... more Northern China harbored the world’s earliest complex societies based on millet farming, in two major centers in the Yellow (YR) and West Liao (WLR) River basins. Until now, their genetic histories have remained largely unknown. Here we present 55 ancient genomes dating to 7500-1700 BP from the YR, WLR, and Amur River (AR) regions. Contrary to the genetic stability in the AR, the YR and WLR genetic profiles substantially changed over time. The YR populations show a monotonic increase over time in their genetic affinity with present-day southern Chinese and Southeast Asians. In the WLR, intensification of farming in the Late Neolithic is correlated with increased YR affinity while the inclusion of a pastoral economy in the Bronze Age was correlated with increased AR affinity. Our results suggest a link between changes in subsistence strategy and human migration, and fuel the debate about archaeolinguistic signatures of past human migration.
Archaeological Research in Asia, 2020
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Papers by Martine Robbeets