Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Nearby Entries
Glottochronology - 2 dictionary results

glot⋅to⋅chro⋅nol⋅o⋅gy

   [glot-oh-kruh-nol-uh-jee, glot-uh-]
–noun Linguistics.
the branch of lexicostatistics that studies the rate of replacement of vocabulary and attempts to determine what percentage of basic vocabulary two presently distinct but related languages share, using the information thus obtained to estimate how long ago they ceased being a single language.
Origin:
1950–55; glotto- + chronology
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source
glottochronology

noun
the determination of how long ago different languages evolved from a common source language; "he mapped the glottochronology of the Romance languages" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Cite This Source
Share :Share This: digg.comShare This: www.stumbleupon.comShare This: del.icio.usShare This: FacebookShare This: favorites.live.comShare This: www.technorati.comShare This: furl.netShare This: www.myspace.comShare This: www.google.comShare This: myweb2.search.yahoo.comShare This: myjeeves.ask.com
Search another word or see Glottochronology on Thesaurus | Reference | Translate