Population Size and the Rate of Language Evolution: A Test Across Indo-European, Austronesian, and Bantu Languages

What role does speaker population size play in shaping rates of language evolution? There has been little consensus on the expected relationship between rates and patterns of language change and speaker population size, with some predicting faster rates of change in smaller populations, and others e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Simon J. Greenhill, Xia Hua, Caela F. Welsh, Hilde Schneemann, Lindell Bromham
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-04-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00576/full