A Software That Can Reconstruct Ancestral Languages

choi

The following report is about a software that reconstructs a proto-language (that is extinct) from modern languages.

(1) Rosetta Stones in a Flash. In Daniel Akst, Week in Idea. Wall Street Journal, Feb 16, 2013.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 00282941725580.html

The last item.

(2) Bouchard-Côtéa A, Hall D, Griffiths TL and Klein D, Automated Reconstruction of Ancient Languages Using Probabilistic Models of Sound Change. Proc Nat Acad Sci, _: _ -_ (published online before print February 11, 2013).
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/05/1204678110.abstract

, whose ful text can be viewed here:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/05/1204678110.full.pdf
(b)
(i) From Figure 1 of the full text, one can see how linguists manually (before) and software (this paper) reconstruct a word in proto language from four modern Austronesian languages (Fijian, Pazeh, Melanau and Inabaknon).

* Fijian is language of Fiji.
* Pazeh language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazeh_language
(in Taiwan)
* Melanau people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanau_people
(live on the island of Borneo)
* For Inabaknon language, see Abaknon language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaknon_language
(in Philippines)
(ii) Figure 2 (family tree) refers to, and stacks up against, linguists' manual methods published in reference 29, which is a book:

Lewis MP, ed (2009) Ethnologue: Languages of the World(SIL International, Dallas, TX, 16th Ed).

The book is for sale and not freely available online.
(c) But one can read an alternative, which is free.

Tryon D, Chapter 2. Proto-Austronesian and Major Austronesian Subgroups. In Bellwood P, Fox JJ and Tryon D (eds), The Austronesians; Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Australian National University Press, 2006.
epress.anu.edu.au/austronesians/austronesians/pdf/ch02.pdf
(Figure 1 ("The geographical range of the Austronesian family"; at page 21) and two diagrams at page 23)