Glottochronology proposes to date language splits arithmetically

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Morris Swadesh set out a method for converting the proportion of shared cognates in a fixed list of basic meanings into elapsed time since two languages diverged, assuming a universal replacement rate calibrated on documented histories. The proposal was attacked immediately and comprehensively: rates are not constant across meanings, languages or historical circumstances, and the cognacy judgements the arithmetic consumes are themselves the contested output of comparative work. Mainstream historical linguistics had largely abandoned the method by the 1970s.

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