stats on vocab coincidences?

[Steven Schaufele]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear fellow historical linguists,
 
If memory serves, two or three years ago somebody did some sort of
statistical study on the odds of vocabulary correspondences occurring
between any two languages purely by chance.  Does anybody remember what
the results of this study were, or where i could find out?  I'm in the
middle of a struggle to enlighten someone trying to argue for
Hebrew-English affiliation purely on the basis of lexical coincidences.
 
Best,
Steven
--
Steven Schaufele, Ph.D., Asst. Prof. of Linguistics, English Department
 
Soochow University, Waishuanghsi Campus, Taipei 11102, Taiwan, ROC
 
(886)(02)2881-9471 ext. 6504     fcosw5 at mbm1.scu.edu.tw
 
http://www.prairienet.org/~fcosws/homepage.html
 
 
 
        ***O syntagmata linguarum liberemini humanarum!***
 
        ***Nihil vestris privari nisi obicibus potestis!***