Insights from Comparative Linguistics Comparative linguistics is
an excellent method for tracing memetic influences between
cultures and cultural genealogy. Nowadays, comparative linguists
analyse the minute details of similarities and differences. They
can often trace words back through many types of change such as
the dropping of syllables and shifts in pronunciation. Thus, the
evolutionary history of various languages can be accurately
traced. Family trees based on differences in DNA. Also, the
migratory histories of whole peoples can be deduced from the
languages that remain today. In Africa, for example, the 1500 or
more surviving languages fall into just five main language
groups, largely spoken by distinct racial groups, and their
distribution can reveal which groups defeated others in the
past. From a few remaining words it can be deduced that the
pygmies once had their own languages but were forced into
adopting those of neighbouring black farmers, and that Semitic
languages, the languages of the Bib