A computer simulation of language families

TL;DR

This paper introduces Monte Carlo simulations combining migration and language features to model language family development, successfully replicating empirical distribution patterns observed in real-world language data.

Contribution

It presents a novel integrated simulation model that merges two existing models to better understand language evolution and family formation.

Findings

Simulation results match empirical language family distributions

Combining migration and structural features explains language diversification

Model offers a new tool for studying language evolution

Abstract

This paper presents Monte Carlo simulations of language populations and the development of language families, showing how a simple model can lead to distributions similar to the ones observed empirically. The model used combines features of two models used in earlier work by phycisists for the simulation of competition among languages: the "Viviane" model for the migration of people and propagation of languages and the "Schulze" model, which uses bitstrings as a way of characterising structural features of languages.