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Hi, my 2 cents worth is that this is an interesting and technically sophisticated piece of work. However, note that their algorithm requires a tree as input and that their inferences are still a long way from those of professionally trained linguists. The
algorithm does better than just picking a reflex in an extant language, but not by as much as one might hope. Cheers, Russell.
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Professor Russell Gray, FRSNZ<br>
Deputy Director (Research)<br>
School of Psychology<br>
University of Auckland<br>
Auckland<br>
New Zealand<br>
<a href="mailto:rd.gray@auckland.ac.nz">rd.gray@auckland.ac.nz</a><br>
64 9 3737 599 ex 88525<br>
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/<br>
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/crows/<br>
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~clb3/NorthAmericanDialects/<br>
http://scholar.google.co.nz/citations?user=FzE-34YAAAAJ&hl=en<br>
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<div>On 13/02/2013, at 9:18 AM, Christopher Sundita <<a href="mailto:cas536@cornell.edu">cas536@cornell.edu</a>></div>
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<div>Hello AN-Lang Members, </div>
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<div>Austronesian historical linguistics is currently in the news. Was quite a surprise - some of the article headlines made references to the Rosetta Stone or what not. In a nutshell, researchers from the University of British Columbia and UC Berkeley developed
a model and algorithm in reconstructing Proto-Austronesian. They used 637 languages in the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (
<a href="http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/">http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/</a> ).</div>
<p>Just some of the articles this was mentioned: </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21427896">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21427896</a><br>
<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/computer-program-roots-out-ancestors-of-modern-tongues-1.12407">http://www.nature.com/news/computer-program-roots-out-ancestors-of-modern-tongues-1.12407</a><br>
<a href="http://phys.org/news/2013-02-computerized-rosetta-stone-reconstructs-ancient.html">http://phys.org/news/2013-02-computerized-rosetta-stone-reconstructs-ancient.html</a><br>
<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/software-revives-dead-tongues-141348127.html">http://news.yahoo.com/software-revives-dead-tongues-141348127.html</a></p>
<p>The article itself is available for download at:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/05/1204678110.abstract">http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/05/1204678110.abstract</a></p>
<p>What are you thoughts on this?</p>
<p>--Chris Sundita</p>
<p>Christopher Sundita<br>
Graduate Student, Linguistics<br>
Cornell University<br>
<a href="http://conf.ling.cornell.edu/csundita">http://conf.ling.cornell.edu/csundita</a></p>
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