Methods of typological analysis

This method of analysis (glottochronology) introduced by historical-comparative linguistics helps to define the degree of affinity of different languages. It was also used to identify the time of divergence of different languages and dialects. M. Swadesh, an American linguist, used this method to distinguish between language and its dialects. Any two speech variations can be called different languages if they started to diverge at least 5 centuries ago or earlier. If it happened later, such variations can’t be called languages; they are just dialects. They still preserve many similarities but later they can develop into different languages. Swadesh proved that the age of any language family is at least 3 thousand years. At that time common Indo-European language split into variations that gave birth to language families. This method was developed by a Russian linguist Yahontov. He introduced a scale of affinity between languages and he based it on possibility of communication. This scale also gives approximate time of divergence of languages.

Glottochronology also describes the degree of affinity of different languages statistically using word-stock of languages. Swadesh stated that in vocabulary of any language there exists a basic most ancient native layer. This layer includes only native words which denote most essential notions used in everyday communication. The more coincidences in form of such words are singled out, the greater degree of affinity of these two languages is. In the same way different languages can be compared and the degree of affinity is always connected with the time of divergence.

Typological indexation (TI) is a specialized typological method created by Joseph Greenberg, an American linguist, and it is also called quantitative method because he used mathematical proportions/ratios. He analyzed texts each consisting of 100 words and the texts were in different languages though the meaning was the same. He singled out the following criteria:

1. the index of syntheticism or the complexity of the text (W = 100 words; M – number of morphemes, then M\W – the index) Eng: 1,62 – 1,68; Rus: 2,33 – 2,45

2. the index of agglutination (A = cases of agglutination; J = juncture, then A\J – the index)

3. Word composition index (R = root; W = words, R\W – the index)

4. Index of Suffixion (S = suffixes; W = words)

High indexes of syntheticism and \\\ are more typical of flective, especially synthetic languages. Other indexes not only show differences between language types, but also measure the degree of synthetic or analytical tendencies within the languages.

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