Modelling Cultural Shift: Application to Processes of Language Displacement

Cultural shift is present in many aspects of human history, from the adoption of consecutive exploitation techniques, to the assimilation of a new language in a region. Here we focus on language shift, describing the main processes that have led human societies to start speaking a new language, and discussing several models devised to reproduce such processes. In particular we present a model developed to study the specific case of language shift in which the indigenous language in a region is being replaced by the language of an adjacent region, which is perceived by the population as being socially and economically more advantageous (Isern and Fort, J. R. Soc. Interface 2014). The model can predict the evolution of the fraction of speakers of each language over time, as well as the speed at which the linguistic border advances into the region. The model is tested with modern data on the retreat of the Welsh language during the twentieth century providing results consistent with the observed historical data.

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