Theoretical model for the evolution of the linguistic diversity

Abstract

Here we describe how some important scaling laws observed in the distribution of languages on Earth can emerge from a simple computer simulation. The proposed language dynamics includes processes of selective geographic colonization, linguistic anomalous diffusion and mutation, and interaction among populations that occupy different regions. It is found that the dependence of the linguistic diversity on the area after colonization displays two power law regimes, both described by critical exponents which are dependent on the mutation probability. Most importantly for the future prospect of world's population, our results show that the linguistic diversity always decrease to an asymptotic very small value if large areas and sufficiently long times of interaction among populations are considered.