Demographic growth and the distribution of language sizes

Abstract

It is argued that the present log-normal distribution of language sizes is, to a large extent, a consequence of demographic dynamics within the population of speakers of each language. A two-parameter stochastic multiplicative process is proposed as a model for the population dynamics of individual languages, and applied over a period spanning the last ten centuries. The model disregards language birth and death. A straightforward fitting of the two parameters, which statistically characterize the population growth rate, predicts a distribution of language sizes in excellent agreement with empirical data. Numerical simulations, and the study of the size distribution within language families, validate the assumptions at the basis of the model.

To appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys. C (2008)

References in corpus (6)

• Microscopic Abrams-Strogatz model of language competition
• Monte Carlo simulation of the rise and the fall of languages
• Simulation for competition of languages with an ageing sexual population
• Non-equilibrium and Irreversible Simulation of Competition among Languages
• Bit-strings and other modifications of Viviane model for language competition
• A new model for competition between many languages

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Statistical physics of social dynamics
• A simple branching model that reproduces language family and language population distributions
• Competition and fragmentation: a simple model generating lognormal-like distributions
• Demography-based adaptive network model reproduces the spatial organization of human linguistic groups