Population Size and the Rate of Language Evolution: A Test Across Indo-European, Austronesian, and Bantu Languages

Frontiers in Psychology
S J GreenhillLindell Bromham

Abstract

What role does speaker population size play in shaping rates of language evolution? There has been little consensus on the expected relationship between rates and patterns of language change and speaker population size, with some predicting faster rates of change in smaller populations, and others expecting greater change in larger populations. The growth of comparative databases has allowed population size effects to be investigated across a wide range of language groups, with mixed results. One recent study of a group of Polynesian languages revealed greater rates of word gain in larger populations and greater rates of word loss in smaller populations. However, that test was restricted to 20 closely related languages from small Oceanic islands. Here, we test if this pattern is a general feature of language evolution across a larger and more diverse sample of languages from both continental and island populations. We analyzed comparative language data for 153 pairs of closely-related sister languages from three of the world's largest language families: Austronesian, Indo-European, and Niger-Congo. We find some evidence that rates of word loss are significantly greater in smaller languages for the Indo-European comparisons, but...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jun 4, 2020·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Kevin TangJeffrey R Gruen
Mar 7, 2019·Frontiers in Psychology·Evelina LeivadaKleanthes K Grohmann
Sep 19, 2018·Royal Society Open Science·Lindell BromhamSimon J Greenhill
Dec 2, 2020·PloS One·Cecilia Padilla-IglesiasLucio Vinicius
May 30, 2020·Trends in Cognitive Sciences·Maxime Derex, Alex Mesoudi
Jan 6, 2022·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Emmanuel D LadoukakisElena Anagnostopoulou

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