Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss

Author:

Skirgård Hedvig1234ORCID,Haynie Hannah J.5ORCID,Blasi Damián E.167ORCID,Hammarström Harald48,Collins Jeremy49,Latarche Jay J.10ORCID,Lesage Jakob14111213ORCID,Weber Tobias114,Witzlack-Makarevich Alena15ORCID,Passmore Sam161718,Chira Angela1ORCID,Maurits Luke19ORCID,Dinnage Russell20ORCID,Dunn Michael48ORCID,Reesink Ger9ORCID,Singer Ruth221ORCID,Bowern Claire22ORCID,Epps Patience23ORCID,Hill Jane24ORCID,Vesakoski Outi2526ORCID,Robbeets Martine27,Abbas Noor Karolin10ORCID,Auer Daniel1,Bakker Nancy A.114,Barbos Giulia10,Borges Robert D.28ORCID,Danielsen Swintha293031,Dorenbusch Luise132ORCID,Dorn Ella10ORCID,Elliott John33,Falcone Giada8,Fischer Jana114ORCID,Ghanggo Ate Yustinus334ORCID,Gibson Hannah35ORCID,Göbel Hans-Philipp11436,Goodall Jemima A.10ORCID,Gruner Victoria1ORCID,Harvey Andrew37ORCID,Hayes Rebekah10ORCID,Heer Leonard14ORCID,Herrera Miranda Roberto E.12323839,Hübler Nataliia114ORCID,Huntington-Rainey Biu104041,Ivani Jessica K.42,Johns Marilen114,Just Erika42ORCID,Kashima Eri23ORCID,Kipf Carolina114,Klingenberg Janina V.114,König Nikita1443ORCID,Koti Aikaterina8ORCID,Kowalik Richard G. A.44ORCID,Krasnoukhova Olga4546ORCID,Lindvall Nora L. M.8ORCID,Lorenzen Mandy114ORCID,Lutzenberger Hannah947ORCID,Martins Tânia R. A.10ORCID,Mata German Celia10,van der Meer Suzanne4ORCID,Montoya Samamé Jaime48ORCID,Müller Michael1ORCID,Muradoglu Saliha2,Neely Kelsey23,Nickel Johanna114,Norvik Miina4950ORCID,Oluoch Cheryl Akinyi114ORCID,Peacock Jesse49,Pearey India O. C.10,Peck Naomi251ORCID,Petit Stephanie10,Pieper Sören14,Poblete Mariana4852ORCID,Prestipino Daniel2,Raabe Linda114ORCID,Raja Amna10,Reimringer Janis1ORCID,Rey Sydney C.1053ORCID,Rizaew Julia10ORCID,Ruppert Eloisa54,Salmon Kim K.1ORCID,Sammet Jill114ORCID,Schembri Rhiannon255,Schlabbach Lars114,Schmidt Frederick W. P.56ORCID,Skilton Amalia57ORCID,Smith Wikaliler Daniel23,de Sousa Hilário458ORCID,Sverredal Kristin8,Valle Daniel59,Vera Javier48ORCID,Voß Judith114,Witte Tim114,Wu Henry260ORCID,Yam Stephanie261,Ye Jingting162ORCID,Yong Maisie10,Yuditha Tessa963ORCID,Zariquiey Roberto148ORCID,Forkel Robert1ORCID,Evans Nicholas23ORCID,Levinson Stephen C.4ORCID,Haspelmath Martin1,Greenhill Simon J.164ORCID,Atkinson Quentin D.64ORCID,Gray Russell D.164ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.

2. ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

3. Department of Linguistics, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

4. Department of Language and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands.

5. Department of Linguistics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.

6. Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

7. Human Relation Area Files, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.

8. Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

9. Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.

10. Department of Linguistics, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK.

11. Langage, Langues et Cultures d'Afrique (LLACAN), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Villejuif, France.

12. Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris, France.

13. Department of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

14. Frisian and General Linguistics, Department of General Linguistics, Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany.

15. Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

16. Evolution of Cultural Diversity Initiative, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

17. Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus), Tokyo, Japan.

18. Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.

19. Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.

20. Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.

21. Research Unit for Indigenous Language, School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

22. Department of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.

23. Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.

24. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.

25. Department of Biology, Turku University, Turku, Finland.

26. Department of Finnish and Finno-Ugric languages, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

27. Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.

28. Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.

29. Zentrum für Kleine und Regionale Sprachen, Friesisches Seminar, Europa-Universität Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany.

30. Centro de Investigaciones Históricas y Antropológicas (CIHA), Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.

31. Europa-Universität Flensburg (EUF), Flensburg, Germany.

32. Institute of Linguistics, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.

33. Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.

34. Universitas Katolik Weetebula, Sumba Island, Indonesia.

35. Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Essex, Essex, UK.

36. Department of Linguistics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.

37. Faculty of Languages and Literatures, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.

38. Structure et Dynamique des Langues (SeDyl), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Villejuif, France.

39. Sprachwissenschaftliches Seminar, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.

40. Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London (UCL), University of London, London, UK.

41. Institutt for Filosofi, ide- og Kunsthistorie og Klassiske Språk (IFIKK), Det Humanistisk Fakultet, Universitet i Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

42. Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.

43. Department of Linguistics, European University Viadrina, Frankfur an der Oder, Germany.

44. Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.

45. Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.

46. Department of Linguistics, University of Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

47. Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

48. Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú.

49. Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.

50. Department of Modern Languages, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

51. University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.

52. Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.

53. The Language Conservancy, Bloomington, IN, USA.

54. Department of Linguistics, Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

55. Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

56. Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

57. Department of Linguistics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.

58. Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale (CRLAO), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Aubervilliers, France.

59. Department of Modern Languages, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA.

60. International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, Japan.

61. Institute for General Linguistics, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany.

62. Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

63. Department of Spanish, Linguistics, and Theory of Literature (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.

64. School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.

Abstract

While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here, we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on the structural diversity of the world’s languages, evaluate constraints on linguistic diversity, and identify the world’s most unusual languages. An analysis of the consequences of language loss reveals that the reduction in diversity will be strikingly uneven across the major linguistic regions of the world. Without sustained efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages, our linguistic window into human history, cognition, and culture will be seriously fragmented.

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Reference72 articles.

Cited by 29 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3