29.3326, Calls: Genetic Classification, Historical Linguistics/Switzerland

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3326. Wed Aug 29 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.3326, Calls: Genetic Classification, Historical Linguistics/Switzerland

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Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2018 22:39:26
From: Rik van Gijn [erik.vangijn at uzh.ch]
Subject: Spatial Patterns of Language Evolution

 
Full Title: Spatial Patterns of Language Evolution 

Date: 24-Jan-2019 - 24-Jan-2019
Location: Zurich, Switzerland 
Contact Person: Peter Ranacher
Meeting Email: peter.ranacher at geo.uzh.ch

Linguistic Field(s): Genetic Classification; Historical Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-Nov-2018 

Meeting Description:

Languages and linguistic properties spread in geographic space either by
phylogeographic expansion (and fission) or contact. Phylogeographic expansion
is the process by which a language evolves into several daughter languages,
thereby losing and/or changing some properties of their ancestor. Contact is
the process in which speakers of different languages interact, with the
possible result of linguistic properties spreading from one language to
another. The interplay of expansion and contact results in the current
distribution of languages and linguistic properties in geographic space.
Researchers have long studied this distribution to find patterns and
relationships, and, ultimately, shed light on the underlying mechanisms of
language evolution. Recently, this endeavor has gained considerable momentum
thanks to the advance of quantitative methods from evolutionary biology.
We can loosely distinguish between two types of studies concerned with
language evolution in space:

a) Reconstructing language evolution 
Phylogeographic analysis aims to infer the expansion of language families in
space and time. Researchers have, for example, reconstructed the most likely
diffusion paths of Pama-Nyungan in Australia (Bouckaert, et al., 2018).
Recently, quantitative studies have also focused on exploring the spread of
linguistic patterns across phylogenies. A current study tracks the emergence
of the British Isles as a linguistic area in North-Western Europe (Dedio, et
al., forthcoming), i.e. a geographic region where languages share common
properties that cannot be explained by common heritage or parallel
development. 

b) Exploring the interaction between space and language evolution
Studies of this type aim to show how spatial phenomena may shape and direct
language evolution. The speed of the Bantu expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa,
for example, has been shown to vary with land cover (Grollemund, et al.,
2015). Moreover, environmental factors drive the distribution and
diversification of languages in space and do so to a much stronger extent in
food producing than in hunter-gatherer societies (Derungs, et al., 2018).

In spite of considerable progress, it remains unclear to what extent we can
make generalizations with respect to the relationship between space and
language evolution (Greenhill, 2015). In order to push the debate forward, we
organize a workshop that brings together researchers from linguistics,
geography, evolutionary biology and related disciplines interested in
exploring language evolution in space. 

References:

Bouckaert, R. R., Bowern, C. & Atkinson, Q. D., 2018. The origin and expansion
of Pama-Nyungan languages across Australia. Nature Ecology & Evolution, p. 1.

Dedio, S., Ranacher, P. & Widmer, P., forthcoming. Evidence for the British
Isles as a linguistic area. 

Derungs, C., Köhli, M., Weibel, R. & Bickel, B., 2018. Environmental factors
drive language density more in food-producing than in hunter-gatherer
populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological
Sciences, Volume 285.

Greenhill, S. J., 2015. In: C. Bowern & B. Evans, eds.: The Routledge handbook
of historical linguistics. Routledge, pp. 557-578.

Grollemund, R. et al., 2015. Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the
route and pace of human dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, Volume 112, pp. 13296-13301.


Call for Papers:

Abstracts (150-200 words, pdf format) should be submitted to
splev.2019 at gmail.com, by November 15, 2018.

We are especially interested in the following topics (but potential
contributors should not feel restricted by them):

- Phylogeographic analysis, i.e. the spatio-temporal expansion of language
families 
- Language contact, i.e. the evolution of linguistic features in space across
language families 
- The mutual influence of space and language evolution, e.g. terrain, climate,
trade routes or barriers to movement
- The relationship between linguistic features and spatial phenomena 
- The coevolution of linguistic features and other (human) traits in space and
time

Acceptance decisions will be communicated by November 30, 2018.
For further information please contact peter.ranacher at geo.uzh.ch.




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