A computer simulation of language families

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.