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Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages

The origins of linguistic diversity remain controversial. Studies disagree on whether group features such as population size or social structure accelerate or decelerate linguistic differentiation. While some analyses of between-group factors highlight the role of geographical isolation and reduced...

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Autores principales: Padilla-Iglesias, Cecilia, Gjesfjeld, Erik, Vinicius, Lucio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7707576/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33259529
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243171
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author Padilla-Iglesias, Cecilia
Gjesfjeld, Erik
Vinicius, Lucio
author_facet Padilla-Iglesias, Cecilia
Gjesfjeld, Erik
Vinicius, Lucio
author_sort Padilla-Iglesias, Cecilia
collection PubMed
description The origins of linguistic diversity remain controversial. Studies disagree on whether group features such as population size or social structure accelerate or decelerate linguistic differentiation. While some analyses of between-group factors highlight the role of geographical isolation and reduced linguistic exchange in differentiation, others suggest that linguistic divergence is driven primarily by warfare among neighbouring groups and the use of language as marker of group identity. Here we provide the first integrated test of the effects of five historical sociodemographic and geographic variables on three measures of linguistic diversification among 50 Austronesian languages: rates of word gain, loss and overall lexical turnover. We control for their shared evolutionary histories through a time-calibrated phylogenetic sister-pairs approach. Results show that languages spoken in larger communities create new words at a faster pace. Within-group conflict promotes linguistic differentiation by increasing word loss, while warfare hinders linguistic differentiation by decreasing both rates of word gain and loss. Finally, we show that geographical isolation is a strong driver of lexical evolution mainly due to a considerable drift-driven acceleration in rates of word loss. We conclude that the motor of extreme linguistic diversity in Austronesia may have been the dispersal of populations across relatively isolated islands, favouring strong cultural ties amongst societies instead of warfare and cultural group marking.
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spelling pubmed-77075762020-12-08 Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages Padilla-Iglesias, Cecilia Gjesfjeld, Erik Vinicius, Lucio PLoS One Research Article The origins of linguistic diversity remain controversial. Studies disagree on whether group features such as population size or social structure accelerate or decelerate linguistic differentiation. While some analyses of between-group factors highlight the role of geographical isolation and reduced linguistic exchange in differentiation, others suggest that linguistic divergence is driven primarily by warfare among neighbouring groups and the use of language as marker of group identity. Here we provide the first integrated test of the effects of five historical sociodemographic and geographic variables on three measures of linguistic diversification among 50 Austronesian languages: rates of word gain, loss and overall lexical turnover. We control for their shared evolutionary histories through a time-calibrated phylogenetic sister-pairs approach. Results show that languages spoken in larger communities create new words at a faster pace. Within-group conflict promotes linguistic differentiation by increasing word loss, while warfare hinders linguistic differentiation by decreasing both rates of word gain and loss. Finally, we show that geographical isolation is a strong driver of lexical evolution mainly due to a considerable drift-driven acceleration in rates of word loss. We conclude that the motor of extreme linguistic diversity in Austronesia may have been the dispersal of populations across relatively isolated islands, favouring strong cultural ties amongst societies instead of warfare and cultural group marking. Public Library of Science 2020-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7707576/ /pubmed/33259529 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243171 Text en © 2020 Padilla-Iglesias et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Padilla-Iglesias, Cecilia
Gjesfjeld, Erik
Vinicius, Lucio
Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages
title Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages
title_full Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages
title_fullStr Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages
title_full_unstemmed Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages
title_short Geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of Austronesian languages
title_sort geographical and social isolation drive the evolution of austronesian languages
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7707576/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33259529
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243171
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