Case study subdiscipline:	Typology
Project title:	Autotyp typological databases
Software used:	FileMaker Pro (TM)
Goals of this case study:	Demonstrate the use of notes and a log to track changes in the genealogical classification in the database.

See slideshow: jn_cyberling_reanalysis_trail.ppt (attachment to this page)

(The genealogical classification can also be accessed online at http://uni-leipzig.de/~autotyp )

This is a series of screenshots of records in the Autotyp typological database. One of the modules there is a genealogy for every language we have in the database (about 2600 languages so far). By now the genealogy amounts to a near-complete list of all the world's language families and most of their major subgrouping. It is under constant revision as fieldwork and comparative work discover new languages and families, join families into larger groups, and otherwise change classification. The literature is also filled with speculative proposals about genealogical relationships that do not have adequate support. Keeping track of the revisions is not particularly burdensome and is absolutely essential for documenting the grounds for the classification. (Unlike most other classifications of the world's languages, ours is based on evidence and criteria for non-chance degrees of resemblance, so every decision does need to be described.)

We have a Notes field on all of our genealogical classification records, and this is used to record the history of editing and reclassifying. The slides in this slideshow show:

3. The levels of classification we consider determinate. Stock and language entries are required for every record.

4. The search interface as seen for a language search from the on-line search interface.

6. Sample language record for Arabic, with its classification at different levels. Note that Afroasiatic, though a bona fide family, is not a stock but a higher-level grouping (demonstrable but not reconstructable).

8-15 (see commentary slides 7 and 14): These are a set of screenshots of records for languages of the Penutian macrogroup. They document our changing decisions on the status of this group and the subgrouping of some of its components.

16-17 Page from the database log outlining the changes made to Penutian in 2008.

17-18 Slide showing evidence and counterevidence presented in Notes comments, on the subclassification of Western Malayo-Polynesian.