This feature allows to generate a graphic representation of the supposed genetic relationships between the language set included in the database, in the form of a genealogical tree (it is also implemented in the StarLing software). The tree picture also includes separation dates for various languages, calculated through standardized glottochronological techniques; additionally, a lexicostatistical matrix of cognate percentages can be produced if asked for.
The tree can be generated by a variety of methods, and you can modify some of the parameters to test various strategies of language classification. The pictures can be saved in different graphic formats and used for presentation or any other purposes.
This option displays the full description for the selected database, including: (a) the complete list of primary and secondary bibliographical sources for the included languages, including brief descriptions of all titles; (b) general notes on said languages, e. g. sociolinguistic information, degree of reliability of sources, notes on grammatical and lexical peculiarities of the languages that may be relevant for the compilation of the lists, etc.; (c) details on the transcription system that was used in the original data sources and its differences from the UTS (Unified Transcription System) transliteration.
This option, when checked, uses a set of different color markers to highlight groups of phonetically similar words in different languages with the same Swadesh meaning.
Phonetic similarity between two different forms is defined in the GLD as a situation in which the aligned consonants of the compared forms (usually the first two) are deemed «similar» to each other. In order for two consonants to be «similar», they have to belong to the same «consonantal class», i.e. a group of sounds that share the same place and a similar manner of articulation. The current grouping of sounds into sound classes can be found here.
Accordingly, the aligned forms undergo a process of «vowel extraction» (all vowels are formally assumed to belong to «class H», together with «weak» laryngeal phonemes), and the individual consonants are then converted to classes, e. g. dog → TK, drink → TRNK (in comparisons, only the first two consonants will be used, so, actually TR), eat → HT (word-initial vowel is equated with lack of consonant or «weak» consonant), fly → PR (l and r belong to the same class) and so on.
If both of the first two consonants of the compared forms are found to correlate, i.e. belong to the same class, the words are deemed similar (e. g. English fly and German fliegen both have the consonantal skeleton PR). If at least one differs, the words are not deemed similar (e. g. English tooth → TT and Old Norse tɔnn → TN, although they are etymological cognates, will not pass the similarity tense because of the second position).
In most cases, checking this option will highlight phonetically similar forms that are also etymological cognates and share the same numeric cognation indexes. Occasionally, however, the checking will also yield «false positives» (accidentally phonetically similar forms that do not share a common origin) and «false negatives» (phonetically dissimilar forms, not highlighted, but actually cognate). It should be noted that one should never expect this method to yield a 100% accurate picture of etymological cognacy. Rather, the method is useful for the following goals: (a) assess the amount of phonetic change that took place between related languages; (b) give a general idea of the degree of closeness of relationship for those languages where phonetic correspondences have not yet been properly established; (c) assess the average number of «chance similarities» that may arise between different languages.
The last task is particularly instructive if the «Highlight...» option is used between two different languages from different databases, i.e. not related to each other or distantly related: in most cases, it will yield around 2-3 accidental color highlights, but occasionally, the count may go as high up as 5 or 6.
This option unfolds all of the notes that accompany the individual forms in the database. Sometimes these notes only consist of a basic reference to the bibliographical source, but at other times, they can be quite expansive, which makes browsing through the wordlist quite cumbersome. By default, the notes stay hidden (each note can also be opened separately by clicking on the sign next to the word).
Munro et al. 1992: 154. Polysemy: 'all / every / everyone / completely'. "The word pay, meaning 'all', is often used in sentences referring to a lot of people, particularly if the dictionary does not list a separate plural form for the verb of the sentence" [Munro et al. 1992: 308]. Secondary synonyms: č=aːm ~ ča=aːm ~ č=uː=aːm ~ č=uːw=aːm 'all / a lot / every' [Munro et al. 1992: 59], kʷ=asent ~ kʷ=asiːnt ~ ku=siːnt ~ ku=sent 'each / every / all / the whole thing' (derived from ʔasent 'one') [Munro et al. 1992: 124], ɲa=kuː=pay 'every / all / only' [Munro et al. 1992: 146].
Crawford 1989: 241-242. Glossed as 'be or do all or everything in regard to someone or something, do all or everything for someone'. Word class: transitive verb. 3rd person form: s=w=am (but =aː=s=ˈaːm for the benefactive meaning). Secondary synonyms: ɲ=m=aːm (impersonal intransitive verb) 'be only, all, just, almost, the end' [Crawford 1989: 181], and ɲ=k=wiɲ (intransitive verb) 'be complete, all, only, exclusively so' [Crawford 1989: 178]. Examination of contexts in [Crawford 1983] shows that s=aːm is the main synonym for 'to be all'. The meaning of the s= in s=aːm is not clear, but its prefixal nature is confirmed by the third person form s=w=am (third person prefix u=/w= occurs immediately before the root [Crawford 1966: 64]).
Miller 2001: 29, 170, 174. Glossed as 'all / in its entirety' [Miller 2001: 170]. According to Miller, čamʎ̥ etymologically (but not synchronically) consists of stem čam and inessive case marker -ʎ̥ [Miller 2001: 29]. The word means both 'omnis' and 'totus', cf. the following examples: t̪iːpˈay pǝyˈa čamʎ̥ uːsˈawax-čuʔu 'Are we going to feed all these people?' [Miller 2001: 46], ...kʷakpˈu čamʎ̥ st̪uːč ɲauːčˈanč... '...when she had gathered all the meat and taken it down...' [Miller 2001: 49].
Crawford 1989: 362. Word class: noun. Cf. xmʔuɬ 'be gray' [ibid.]. Another candidate is kʷiːmˈa ~ kiːmˈa 'ashes' [Crawford 1989: 54]. In all the three instances in [Crawford 1983] where the English translation of the text has 'ashes', Cocopa original has xmʔuɬ [Crawford 1983: 364-365, 374-377].
Munro et al. 1992: 61. Polysemy: 'bark / skin / hide'. Secondary synonyms: hamaʎ 'leaf / bark' [Munro et al. 1992: 73], nuθ=kʷil 'bark (of a tree)' [Munro et al. 1992: 145] (according to Munro et al., related to čaθ=kʷil).
Crawford 1989: 400. Glossed as 'stomach / mind'. Word class: noun. Textual examples show that the word also actually means 'belly', cf. the following contexts: 'She kept on tickling him on the stomach' [Crawford 1983: 72-73], 'the girl ... tickled his stomach like this' [Crawford 1983: 76-77]. Derived from ču 'middle / center' [Crawford 1989: 31].
Munro et al. 1992: 198. Glossed as 'be big'. Plural forms: va=ʎ=ta-č- ~ va=ta-č-. A synonym with the same root is va=ʎ=teː-k 'be big' [Munro et al. 1992: 199].
Miller 2001: 78, 96, 125-126, 128, 138, 360. Glossed as 'to be big'. Plural stem: t̪aːy [Miller 2001: 126]. Personal forms: 1st sg. aʔ=t̪ˈay, 2nd sg. mǝ=t̪ˈay, 3rd sg. kʷa=t̪ˈay (1st and 3rd person forms are irregular) [Miller 2001: 138].
Munro et al. 1992: 40. Short form: č=i=yer. Derived from i=yer-k 'fly (verb)' [Munro et al. 1992: 110] with prefixed ʔič 'something' (used with a following verb or descriptive term) [Munro et al. 1992: 37].
Shaterian 1983: 372, 377, 449, 536. Plural form: ʔčsˈa lˈaˑwi [Shaterian 1983: 377]. Related to ʔ=sˈa 'eagle / widow' [Shaterian 1983: 448] (the meaning 'widow' is probably a fortuitous homonymy).
Munro et al. 1992: 59. Polysemy: 'bite / take a bite / bite off a piece'. Plural forms: ča=č=uː=kʸaːv- ~ ča=č=kʸaː- 'bite off several pieces / bite several people'.
Crawford 1989: 172. Glossed as 'be black, dark, dark-complexioned'. Word class: intransitive verb. 3rd person form: ʔu=ɲˈiːʎ̥ ~ ɲ=w=iʎ̥ (for some speakers ɲ=w=iʎ̥ means 'he is dark-complexioned' and ʔu=ɲˈiːʎ̥ - "he is black (as if painted black)' [ibid.]). Thus, the root varies between =iːʎ̥ and =ɲiːʎ̥.
Crawford 1989: 200. Word class: noun. Cf. y=aːk 'bone (removed from the body) / skeleton' (in the meaning 'skeleton' reduced from lxʷačˈaq yaːk) [Crawford 1989: 377].
Crawford 1989: 351. Glossed as 'chest'. Word class: noun. Applicable to both men and women, cf. the following textual example: 'He shot the chest of an old woman' [Crawford 1983: 132-133]. Distinct from ɲ=may ~ ʔi=mˈay 'breast, teat' [Crawford 1989: 182, 401].
Shaterian 1983: 481, 500, 538. Related to (ʔ)=mˈay-a 'milk' [Shaterian 1983: 481]. The form pˌaˑhmˌiɲmˈáya 'man's breast' [Shaterian 1983: 346] shows that ɲmˈaya is applicable to both male and female breast. Cf. iˑ=wˈá(ˑ)y-a 'heart / chest' [Shaterian 1983: 417].
Miller 2001: 81. Glossed as 'chest'. Cf. ɲǝ=mˈay 'breast' [Miller 2001: 80]. It is not clear which of these words (if any) is applicable to both man's and woman's breast.
Miller 2001: 27, 117, 123. Polysemy: 'to burn (something) / to cremate'. Another candidate is x=ʎ̥ap ~ xǝ=ʎ̥ˈap 'to burn (something) / cremate' [Miller 2001: 68, 94] - an irregularly formed causative of ʎ̥ap 'to be hot / burn (intrans.)' [Miller 2001: 94].
Shaterian 1983: 455, 467, 589. Polysemy: 'nail / claw / hoof'. Variant form: sl=hʷˈoˑ (Tolkapaya dialect, informant Warren Gazzam). The prefix ("quasi-classifier", according to Shaterian) sl= goes back to sˈal 'hand'. Cf. sˌal=sl=hʷˈóˑ 'fingernail' [Shaterian 1983: 458], where sˈal is present two times - as prefix and as first member of compound.
Crawford 1989: 366. Glossed as 'be cold'. Word class: impersonal intransitive verb. For the segmentation of x= cf. x=iː=sˈuɾ 'turn cold / be winter or cold weather' (impersonal intransitive verb) [Crawford 1989: 353] with the prefix iː= 'be, become' [Crawford 1966: 112].
Crawford 1989: 381. Glossed as 'come, move in time or space toward a point of reference'. Word class: intransitive verb. 3rd person form: ʔu=yˈiː [Crawford 1989: 423].
Crawford 1989: 144. Polysemy: 'die / be dying or dead / be drunk'. Word class: intransitive verb. 3rd person form: mʂ=u=pˈa. Suppletive subject plural: ʔiːm.
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