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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...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7707576 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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