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There are more stems per item in Athabascan, which expresses the fact that the Athabascan languages have undergone somewhat more change in diverging from proto-Athabascan than the Yokuts languages from proto-Yokuts.

This may be because the Athabascan divergence began earlier ; ;

or again because the Athabascan languages spread over a very much larger territory ( including three wholly separated areas ) ; ;

or both.

The differentiation, however, is not very much greater, as shown by the fact that Athabascan shows 3.46 stems per meaning slot as against 2.75 for Yokuts, with a slightly greater number of languages represented in our sample: 24 as against 21.

( On deduction of one-eighth from 3.46, the stem / item rate becomes 3.03 against 2.75 in equivalent number of languages.

) These general facts are mentioned to make clear that the total situation in the two families is similar enough to warrant comparison.