Automated Similarity Judgment Program

Automated Similarity Judgment Program
ProducerMax Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Germany)
LanguagesEnglish
Access
CostFree
Coverage
DisciplinesQuantitative comparative linguistics
Links
Websiteasjp.clld.org

The Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) is a collaborative project applying computational approaches to comparative linguistics using a database of word lists. The database is open access and consists of 40-item basic-vocabulary lists for well over half of the world's languages.[1] It is continuously being expanded. In addition to isolates and languages of demonstrated genealogical groups, the database includes pidgins, creoles, mixed languages, and constructed languages. Words of the database are transcribed into a simplified standard orthography (ASJPcode).[2] The database has been used to estimate dates at which language families have diverged into daughter languages by a method related to but still different from glottochronology,[3] to determine the homeland (Urheimat) of a proto-language,[4] to investigate sound symbolism,[5] to evaluate different phylogenetic methods,[6] and several other purposes.

ASJP is not widely accepted among historical linguists as an adequate method to establish or evaluate relationships between language families.[7]

It is part of the Cross-Linguistic Linked Data project hosted by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.[8]

  1. ^ "The ASJP Database -". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  2. ^ Brown, Cecil H; Holman, Eric W.; Wichmann, Søren; Velupillai, Viveka (2008). "Automated classification of the world's languages: A description of the method and preliminary results". STUF – Language Typology and Universals.
  3. ^ "Automated dating of the world's language families based on lexical similarity" (PDF). pubman.mpdl.mpg.de. 2011.
  4. ^ "Homelands of the world's language families: A quantitative approach". www.researchgate.net. 2010.
  5. ^ Wichmann, Søren; Holman, Eric W.; Brown, Cecil H. (April 2010). "Sound Symbolism in Basic Vocabulary". Entropy. 12 (4): 844–858. doi:10.3390/e12040844. ISSN 1099-4300.
  6. ^ Pompei, Simone; Loreto, Vittorio; Tria, Francesca (June 3, 2011). "On the Accuracy of Language Trees". PLOS ONE. 6 (6): e20109. arXiv:1103.4012. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...620109P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020109. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3108590. PMID 21674034.
  7. ^ Cf. comments by Adelaar, Blust and Campbell in Holman, Eric W., et al. (2011) "Automated Dating of the World’s Language Families Based on Lexical Similarity." Current Anthropology, vol. 52, no. 6, pp. 841–875.
  8. ^ "Cross-Linguistic Linked Data". Retrieved February 22, 2020.