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Scaling relations for diversity of languages

Author

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  • Gomes, M.A.F
  • Vasconcelos, G.L
  • Tsang, I.J
  • Tsang, I.R

Abstract

The distribution of living languages is investigated and scaling relations are found for the diversity of languages as a function of the country area and population. These results are compared with data from Ecology and from computer simulations of fragmentation dynamics where similar scalings appear. The language size distribution is also studied and shown to display two scaling regions: (i) one for the largest (in population) languages and (ii) another one for intermediate-size languages. It is then argued that these two classes of languages may have distinct growth dynamics, being distributed on the sets of different fractal dimensions.

Suggested Citation

  • Gomes, M.A.F & Vasconcelos, G.L & Tsang, I.J & Tsang, I.R, 1999. "Scaling relations for diversity of languages," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 271(3), pages 489-495.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:271:y:1999:i:3:p:489-495
    DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(99)00249-6
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    Cited by:

    1. Santos, M.R.F. & Gomes, M.A.F., 2020. "A heuristic model for the scaling linguistic diversity-area," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 555(C).
    2. Susanna C Manrubia & Jacob B Axelsen & Damián H Zanette, 2012. "Role of Demographic Dynamics and Conflict in the Population-Area Relationship for Human Languages," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-7, July.
    3. Feng, Ai-Xia & Fu, Chun-Hua & Xu, Xiu-Lian & Zhou, Yue-Ping & Chang, Hui & Wang, Jian & He, Da-Ren & Feng, Guo-Lin, 2012. "An extended clique degree distribution and its heterogeneity in cooperation–competition networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(7), pages 2454-2462.

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