Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

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

Published:2023-04-21 Issue:16 Volume:9 Page:
ISSN:2375-2548
Container-title:Science Advances
language:en
Short-container-title:Sci. Adv.

Author:

Skirgård Hedvig¹²³⁴^ORCID,Haynie Hannah J.⁵^ORCID,Blasi Damián E.¹⁶⁷^ORCID,Hammarström Harald⁴⁸,Collins Jeremy⁴⁹,Latarche Jay J.¹⁰^ORCID,Lesage Jakob¹⁴¹¹¹²¹³^ORCID,Weber Tobias¹¹⁴,Witzlack-Makarevich Alena¹⁵^ORCID,Passmore Sam¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸,Chira Angela¹^ORCID,Maurits Luke¹⁹^ORCID,Dinnage Russell²⁰^ORCID,Dunn Michael⁴⁸^ORCID,Reesink Ger⁹^ORCID,Singer Ruth²²¹^ORCID,Bowern Claire²²^ORCID,Epps Patience²³^ORCID,Hill Jane²⁴^ORCID,Vesakoski Outi²⁵²⁶^ORCID,Robbeets Martine²⁷,Abbas Noor Karolin¹⁰^ORCID,Auer Daniel¹,Bakker Nancy A.¹¹⁴,Barbos Giulia¹⁰,Borges Robert D.²⁸^ORCID,Danielsen Swintha²⁹³⁰³¹,Dorenbusch Luise¹³²^ORCID,Dorn Ella¹⁰^ORCID,Elliott John³³,Falcone Giada⁸,Fischer Jana¹¹⁴^ORCID,Ghanggo Ate Yustinus³³⁴^ORCID,Gibson Hannah³⁵^ORCID,Göbel Hans-Philipp¹¹⁴³⁶,Goodall Jemima A.¹⁰^ORCID,Gruner Victoria¹^ORCID,Harvey Andrew³⁷^ORCID,Hayes Rebekah¹⁰^ORCID,Heer Leonard¹⁴^ORCID,Herrera Miranda Roberto E.¹²³²³⁸³⁹,Hübler Nataliia¹¹⁴^ORCID,Huntington-Rainey Biu¹⁰⁴⁰⁴¹,Ivani Jessica K.⁴²,Johns Marilen¹¹⁴,Just Erika⁴²^ORCID,Kashima Eri²³^ORCID,Kipf Carolina¹¹⁴,Klingenberg Janina V.¹¹⁴,König Nikita¹⁴⁴³^ORCID,Koti Aikaterina⁸^ORCID,Kowalik Richard G. A.⁴⁴^ORCID,Krasnoukhova Olga⁴⁵⁴⁶^ORCID,Lindvall Nora L. M.⁸^ORCID,Lorenzen Mandy¹¹⁴^ORCID,Lutzenberger Hannah⁹⁴⁷^ORCID,Martins Tânia R. A.¹⁰^ORCID,Mata German Celia¹⁰,van der Meer Suzanne⁴^ORCID,Montoya Samamé Jaime⁴⁸^ORCID,Müller Michael¹^ORCID,Muradoglu Saliha²,Neely Kelsey²³,Nickel Johanna¹¹⁴,Norvik Miina⁴⁹⁵⁰^ORCID,Oluoch Cheryl Akinyi¹¹⁴^ORCID,Peacock Jesse⁴⁹,Pearey India O. C.¹⁰,Peck Naomi²⁵¹^ORCID,Petit Stephanie¹⁰,Pieper Sören¹⁴,Poblete Mariana⁴⁸⁵²^ORCID,Prestipino Daniel²,Raabe Linda¹¹⁴^ORCID,Raja Amna¹⁰,Reimringer Janis¹^ORCID,Rey Sydney C.¹⁰⁵³^ORCID,Rizaew Julia¹⁰^ORCID,Ruppert Eloisa⁵⁴,Salmon Kim K.¹^ORCID,Sammet Jill¹¹⁴^ORCID,Schembri Rhiannon²⁵⁵,Schlabbach Lars¹¹⁴,Schmidt Frederick W. P.⁵⁶^ORCID,Skilton Amalia⁵⁷^ORCID,Smith Wikaliler Daniel²³,de Sousa Hilário⁴⁵⁸^ORCID,Sverredal Kristin⁸,Valle Daniel⁵⁹,Vera Javier⁴⁸^ORCID,Voß Judith¹¹⁴,Witte Tim¹¹⁴,Wu Henry²⁶⁰^ORCID,Yam Stephanie²⁶¹,Ye Jingting¹⁶²^ORCID,Yong Maisie¹⁰,Yuditha Tessa⁹⁶³^ORCID,Zariquiey Roberto¹⁴⁸^ORCID,Forkel Robert¹^ORCID,Evans Nicholas²³^ORCID,Levinson Stephen C.⁴^ORCID,Haspelmath Martin¹,Greenhill Simon J.¹⁶⁴^ORCID,Atkinson Quentin D.⁶⁴^ORCID,Gray Russell D.¹⁶⁴^ORCID

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

Link

https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.adg6175

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