Towards unsupervised extraction of linguistic typological features from language descriptions

In this paper, we describe our first attempt at building an NLP pipeline that extracts typological features from OCR’ed linguistic descriptions

Population Size and Rates of Language Change

Previous empirical studies of population size and language change have produced equivocal results. We therefore address the question with a new set of lexical data from nearly one-half of the world’s languages. We first show that relative population sizes of modern languages can be extrapolated to ancestral languages, albeit with diminishing accuracy, up to several thousand years into the past. We then test for an effect of population against the null hypothesis that the ultrametric inequality is satisfied by lexical distance among triples of related languages. The test shows mainly negligible effects of population, the exception being an apparently faster rate of change in the larger of two closely related variants. A possible explanation for the exception may be the influence on emerging standard (or cross-regional) variants from speakers who shift from different dialects to the standard. Our results strongly indicate that the sizes of speaker populations do not in and of themselves determine rates of language change. Comparison of this empirical finding with previously published computer simulations suggests that the most plausible model for language change is one in which changes propagate on a local level in a type of network in which the individuals have different degrees of connectivity

Longitud vocálica y globalización en la escritura jeroglífica náhuatl

Longitud vocálica y glotalización son rasgos fonológicos que presentan algunas lenguas del mundo. Estos importantes rasgos fueron tratados de forma muy distinta en los diferentes sistemas de escritura que las registraron, en unas ocasiones no representándose (Lineal B y latina romana), en otras adoptando diferentes estrategias, desde la introducción de signos distintos especializados (escritura griega) al desarrollo de convenciones escriturarias (acadio y persa cuneiforme y maya). Este trabajo estudia la representación de la longitud vocálica y la glotalización en la escritura jeroglífica náhuatl. Analizando la estructura del signario fonético, el comportamiento de los fonogramas en la complementación fonética y el uso de los logogramas en rebus, debemos concluir que la longitud vocálica no se representó en la escritura jeroglífica náhuatl ni mediante la utilización de fonogramas especializados ni mediante convenciones de composición, considerando la posibilidad, sin embargo, del uso de la inserción vocálica (-CV1-V1) como convención escrituraria para la representación de glotales (V’).Vowel length and glottalization are phonological features exhibited by several languages of the world. These important features were treated in very different ways by different writing systems. Sometimes they were not represented at all (Linear B and the Roman alphabet); sometimes they were represented through the introduction of specialized signs (the Greek alphabet) or through the development of special scribal conventions (Akkadian and Persian cuneiform, and Maya writing). This work studies the representation of vowel length and glottalization in Nahuatl hieroglyphic writing. Analyzing the structure of the phonetic inventory of signs, the behavior of phonograms in phonetic complementation, and the use of logograms in rebus spellings, we conclude that vowel length was not recorded in Nahuatl hieroglyphic writing, neither through specialized phonograms nor through other scribal conventions. Glottal stops (V’), however, may have been represented sometimes through the convention of vowel insertion (-CV1-V1)

Tone and word length across languages

The aim of this paper is to show evidence of a statistical dependency of the presence of tones on word length. Other work has made it clear that there is a strong inverse correlation between population size and word length. Here it is additionally shown that word length is coupled with tonal distinctions, languages being more likely to have such distinctions when they exhibit shorter words. It is hypothesized that the chain of causation is such that population size influences word length, which, in turn, influences the presence and number of tonal distinctions

Sprog og rumlig orientering i livsverdenen

The article claims that language and culture should not be studied separately. Examples from linguistic expressions of space in Danish, Hopi, Yutatec Maya, and Tlapanec are drawn upon to support this view. In Danish, different lexical items describing domestic space are introduced into discourse by different prepositions according to a system revolving around integration and centrality that seems to reflect actual behaviour. It is suggested that this behaviour be studied. A review of studies of linguistic conceptualization of domestic space in Hopi (Whorf & Malotki) and Yucatec (Hanks) shows that lexical structure alone does not pinpoint cultural characteristics - a study of language use is all-important. This is also the case of Tlapanec motion verbs which make a contrast between ‘base’ and ‘non-base’. The correct use of these verbs requires a culturally transmitted knowledge of what belongs where in the world - as do many other forms of behaviour. These observations are followed by a short review of other studies in the field of language and spatial orientation. Finally, the conclusion again stresses the need to integrate linguistic and anthropological thinking. &nbsp

Matthew Restall: The Maya World. Yucatec Culture and Society 1550-1850

Anmeldes af Søren Wichman

The paleobiolinguistics of domesticated chili pepper (Capsicum spp.)

Paleobiolinguistics employs the comparative method of historical linguistics to reconstruct the biodiversity known to human groups of the remote, unrecorded past. Comparison of words for biological species from languages of the same language family facilitates reconstruction of the biological vocabulary of the family's ancient proto-language. This study uses paleobiolinguistics to establish where and when chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) developed significance for different prehistoric Native American groups. This entails mapping in both time and geographic space proto-languages for which words for chili pepper reconstruct. Maps show the broad distribution of Capsicum through Mesoamerica and South America mirroring its likely independent domestication in these regions. Proto-language dates indicate that human interest in chili pepper had developed in most of Latin America at least a millennium before a village-farming way of life became widespread. © 2013 Society of Ethnobiology

A global analysis of matches and mismatches between human genetic and linguistic histories

Human history is written in both our genes and our languages. The extent to which our biological and linguistic histories are congruent has been the subject of considerable debate, with clear examples of both matches and mismatches. To disentangle the patterns of demographic and cultural transmission, we need a global systematic assessment of matches and mismatches. Here, we assemble a genomic database (GeLaTo, or Genes and Languages Together) specifically curated to investigate genetic and linguistic diversity worldwide. We find that most populations in GeLaTo that speak languages of the same language family (i.e., that descend from the same ancestor language) are also genetically highly similar. However, we also identify nearly 20% mismatches in populations genetically close to linguistically unrelated groups. These mismatches, which occur within the time depth of known linguistic relatedness up to about 10,000 y, are scattered around the world, suggesting that they are a regular outcome in human history. Most mismatches result from populations shifting to the language of a neighboring population that is genetically different because of independent demographic histories. In line with the regularity of such shifts, we find that only half of the language families in GeLaTo are genetically more cohesive than expected under spatial autocorrelations. Moreover, the genetic and linguistic divergence times of population pairs match only rarely, with Indo-European standing out as the family with most matches in our sample. Together, our database and findings pave the way for systematically disentangling demographic and cultural history and for quantifying processes of shifts in language and social identities on a global scale