Theoretical model for the evolution of the linguistic diversity

Viviane M. de Oliveira, M.A.F. Gomes and I.R. Tsang

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2006, vol. 361, issue 1, 361-370

Abstract: Here we describe how some important scaling laws observed in the distribution of languages on Earth can emerge from a simple computer simulation. The proposed language dynamics includes processes of selective geographic colonization, linguistic anomalous diffusion and mutation, and interaction among populations that occupy different regions. It is found that the dependence of the linguistic diversity on the area after colonization displays two power law regimes, both described by critical exponents which are dependent on the mutation probability. Most importantly for the future prospect of world's population, our results show that the linguistic diversity always decrease to an asymptotic very small value if large areas and sufficiently long times of interaction among populations are considered.

Keywords: Diversity; Languages; Language competition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:361:y:2006:i:1:p:361-370

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2005.06.069

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