Word Distributions in Southeastern Papua

This paper seeks to derive historical information from linguistic material by means of statistical techniques. The material is drawn from the Melanesian languages of southeastern Papua. The principal technique employed may be designated the Czekanowski-Klimek technique, after Jan Czekanowski, the Polish anthropologist who first applied it to linguistics, and his pupil Stanislaw Klimek, who introduced it into this country, and from whom the present writer learned it.