As someone who has a background in ecology and many things biology, there are often many times I have tried to observe parallels between biodiversity and linguistic diversity. In fact, I have written a couple of posts before about these topics, breaking down published academic or scientific papers that explore these concepts. We see that … Continue reading Language and Ecology — Island Biogeography of Languages
environment
Saying It Like It Sounds — Onomatopoeia
Language is actually quite a neat little concept, how it can be simplified to the expression of ideas, concepts, experiences and memories by the utterance of sounds that make sense to people who speak the same tongue. Sociology, human interactions with other humans and the environment, and the time-attested evolution could all impact a language's … Continue reading Saying It Like It Sounds — Onomatopoeia
Language and Ecology — Distribution of Tonal Languages
Previously, we looked at the ecological drivers behind global patterns and distribution of language diversity. On a global scale, language diversity increases towards the equator, and the tropics are found to be more language dense. To explain these patterns from an ecological perspective, it was proposed that ecological risk played a more significant role than … Continue reading Language and Ecology — Distribution of Tonal Languages
The Language Closet 