The evolution of similarity avoidance: a phylogenetic approach to phonotactic change

Abstract

The cross-linguistic under-representation of adjacent consonants sharing a place of articulation within uninflected lexical items is well documented. At the same time, little is known regarding the specific diachronic mechanisms involved in the emergence and maintenance of this pattern. Phylogenetic analyses provide some support for the idea that adjacent identical consonants within words arise infrequently, but stronger support for the idea that words containing such a pattern die out more frequently than those without. I highlight the value of tools used in this paper for exploring the evolution of sound patterns, and also discuss some limitations of the implementation used in the paper to be improved upon.

Plastid genome evolution in leafless members of the orchid subfamily Orchidoideae, with a focus on Degranvillea dermaptera

“…By allowing multiple rate classes both within and across branches of the tree, the problem of heterotachy can be addressed, allowing more robust inference of phylogenetic relationships, support, and branch lengths, all of which are critical to downstream applications. Such methods have been applied in diverse disciplines, e.g., in phylogenomics, morphological evolution, and linguistics (Casali et al, 2023;Cathcart, 2023;Herting et al, 2023).…”