Chance CVC Correspondences in Unrelated Languages
M. Lionel Bender · Language · 1969
Various proposals have been advanced concerning what has been referred to as ‘refutation of the nil hypothesis’ in language comparisons, i.e. that the sound-meaning correspondences found for any two particular languages are within the range of what one would expect by sheer coincidence. Swadesh concludes that at 95% confidence level, four or more cognates in a list of 100 basic vocabulary items justify accepting a hypothesis of genetic relationship. H. K. J. Cowan estimates that the existence of three or more cognates is sufficient at the same level. Both these proposals are based on mathematical formulations, Cowan’s the more sophisticated. Approaching the problem from the empirical side, 100-item lists in 21 languages are here used to arrive at a conclusion that the presence of more than two solid CVC sound-meaning correspondences in languages believed to be unrelated raises a strong probability that more than chance is involved.