The Measurement of phonetic Similarity

There are many reasc~s for wanting to measure the degree of phoae-tic similarity between members of a group of languages or dialects. The present study grew out of a research project which was designed to get data that might have a bearing on some of the practical problems which exist in Uganda. In the Southern part of Uganda, where two thirds of the nine million people live, there are numerous closely related Bantu languages or dialects. The official Ugandan census data lists 15 Bantu languages. The current study uses data on these and six others. We wanted to assess their phonetic similarity so that there would be data on which to base decisions on which languages to use for broadcasting (the government currently broadcasts in 8 or 9 of these languages, as well as in i0 non-Bantu languages), which to use in schools (3 are used officially and a further 5 unofficially, but with the connivance of the local education authorities), and which for other purposes. One method of obtaining a measure might have been by devising a metric that could be applied to formal comparisons of phonological descriptions of each of these languages. This method was not attempted, largely because of time limitations. The data had to be collected and first analyses made within a period of one year. Furthermore, it soon appeared that the sound patterns of nearly all of these languages were very similar, and the phonological descriptions would have to be eXtremely detailed before systematic differences became apparent. Finally,