Language Boundaries Driven by Surface Tension

H uman language is unique among communication systems in being a cultural system characterized by prodigious and pervasive variation and flux on many dimensions [1, 2]. Until the advent of global communication, linguistic varieties were predominantly localized to spatially bound areas, and much research in dialectology has been devoted to understanding the shape and distribution of these dialect regions and how linguistic change spreads through them. In a new paper [3], James Burridge from the University of Portsmouth, UK, presents an innovative statistical-mechanics model, in which the evolution of the boundaries between dialects is driven by a kind of “surface tension” that minimizes the boundary lengths. By accounting for the influence of external topographical features like the shape of coastlines and the positioning of cities, Burridge shows that his model reproduces established features in the distribution of dialects in Great Britain, Germany, and elsewhere.