Influence of geography on language competition

Marco Patriarca and Els Heinsalu

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2009, vol. 388, issue 2, 174-186

Abstract: Competition between languages or cultural traits diffusing in the same geographical area is studied combining the model of Abrams and Strogatz with a model of human dispersal on an inhomogeneous substrate. Also, the effect of population growth is discussed. It is shown through numerical simulations that the final configuration of the languages can be strongly affected by geographical and historical factors. These factors are not related to the dynamics of culture transmission, but rather to initial population distributions as well as geographical boundaries and inhomogeneities, which modulate the diffusion process.

Keywords: Language competition; Culture diffusion; Reaction-diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:388:y:2009:i:2:p:174-186

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2008.09.034

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