Table 3.
D‐statistic tests of phylogenetic structuring for terminological types, in three large language families
| Present | D‐Statistic | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian (n = 85) | Eskimo | 14 | −0.498 |
| Hawaiian | 48 | 0.659 | |
| Iroquois | 15 | 0.095 | |
| Bantu (n = 69) | Hawaiian | 9 | 0.402 |
| Iroquois | 44 | 0.162 | |
| Omaha | 8 | 0.780 | |
| Uto‐Aztecan (n = 22) | Hawaiian | 16 | −0.596 |
| Iroquois | 4 | −2.336 |
A D‐statistic close to or greater than 1 indicates a random distribution, not structured by the phylogeny. A D statistic close to 0 implies consistency with Brownian motion along the branches of the phylogeny, that is, structuring by descent. D less than 0 implies strong phylogenetic clustering.