Considers how languages have traditionally been divided into families, and asks how they should be classified. This book tests theories and hypotheses, shows how new ideas can be formulated, and offers a series of demonstrations that the new techniques applied to old data can produce convincing results.

1. How do Linguists Classify Languages? ; 2. Lexicostatistics ; 3. Tree-Based Quantitative Approaches - Computational Cladistics ; 4. Tree-Based Quantitative Approaches: Sublists ; 5. Correlations Between Genetic and Linguistic Data ; 6. Climbing Down from the Trees: Network Models ; 7. Dating ; 8. Quantitative Methods Beyond the Lexicon

Approachable style Reveals startling results by applying new techniques to old data Deals with a wide range of languages, including Indo-European and South American languages Authors combine the expertise of historical linguistics and genetics Broad disciplinary range including language, genetics, archaeology, computer simulation, quantitative methods New perspectives on language contact and language change Will be used as a textbook in comparative linguistics

April McMahon is Forbes Professor of English Language at the University of Edinburgh, and has previously worked at the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge. Her main research interests are language change, language classification, phonological theory, and variation in English and Scots. She has published a number of books on these topics, including Understanding Language Change (CUP 1994), Lexical Phonology and the History of English (CUP 2000), and Change, Chance, and Optimality (OUP 2000). She and Robert McMahon have worked together for the last ten years on interdisciplinary issues including connections between evolutionary theory, genetics, and historical linguistics. This is their first joint book. Robert McMahon took his BSc (in Agricultural Science) and PhD (in fruit fly genetics) at Edinburgh, and since graduation has worked as a clinical molecular geneticist in Cambridge, Sheffield, and now Edinburgh. His work involves tracing inherited conditions through families, and in particular he has researched and provided genetic services for cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, inherited cancer and Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease). He has published a range of articles in professional and scientific journals, and maintains a research interest in issues of human genetics and evolution, and their relationship with language.

Approachable style Reveals startling results by applying new techniques to old data Deals with a wide range of languages, including Indo-European and South American languages Authors combine the expertise of historical linguistics and genetics Broad disciplinary range including language, genetics, archaeology, computer simulation, quantitative methods New perspectives on language contact and language change Will be used as a textbook in comparative linguistics