Abstract
Environmental parameters constrain the distributions of plant and animal species. A key question is to what extent does environment influence human behavior. Decreasing linguistic diversity from the equator towards the poles suggests that ecological factors influence linguistic geography. However, attempts to quantify the role of environmental factors in shaping linguistic diversity remain inconclusive. To this end, we apply Ecological Niche Modelling methods to present-day language diversity in New Guinea. We define an Eco-Linguistic Niche (ELN) as the range of environmental conditions present in the territory of a population speaking a specific language or group of languages characterized by common language traits. In order to reconstruct the ELNs, we used Papuan and Austronesian language groups, transformed their geographical distributions into occurrence data, assembled available environmental data for New Guinea, and applied predictive architectures developed in the field of ecology to these data. We find no clear relationship between linguistic diversity and ELNs. This is particularly true when linguistic diversity is examined at the level of language groups. Language groups are variably dependent on environment and generally share their ELN with other language groups. This variability suggests that population dynamics, migration, linguistic drift, and socio-cultural mechanisms must be taken into consideration in order to better understand the myriad factors that shape language diversity.
Highlights
Eco-Linguistic-Niches (ELNs)—i.e. the range of geographic and environmental parameters that characterize a linguistic territory—were modelled for 29 top-level linguistic groups of NG, including 9 Austronesian language family groups and 20 Trans-New Guinea (TNG) language family groups
When Eco-Linguistic Niche (ELN) are compared to linguistic areas, two types of cases can be distinguished: Either the geographic distribution of the ELN is larger than that of the linguistic area (Fig 2C and 2D) or it largely coincides with the linguistic area (Fig 2A and 2B)
Our results suggest that while the expansion of TNG and Austronesian language families, and the current linguistic diversity of NG, have been and are influenced by environmental constraints, rather than acting as prime movers, such influences act in concert with many other factors, such as evolved socio-dynamics, ethnocentricity, and warfare
Summary
Eco-Linguistic-Niches (ELNs)—i.e. the range of geographic and environmental parameters that characterize a linguistic territory—were modelled for 29 top-level linguistic groups of NG (see Methods), including 9 Austronesian language family groups and 20 Trans-New Guinea (TNG) language family groups (identified by index numbers given in Fig 1, S1 Fig., Text 2 in S1 File). The narrowness of the Austronesian distribution within the first PCA axis indicates that Austronesian linguistic groups have a similar ecological space position with respect to temperature (Fig 5B) and topography (Fig 5C) Within these trends, Austronesian linguistic groups concentrate around three different environmental settings (Fig 4): one with low precipitation (Fig 5A) occupied by three of the four mainland groups (Mekeo, Roro and Motu, Fig 1), one (Manus Island) with comparatively higher GS values (Fig 5D), and one situated around high temperatures (Fig 5A) and low altitudes (Fig 5C) where the remaining, mainly island Austronesian, groups are situated (Fig 1). This means that some environments are most likely occupied by TNG, others most likely by Austronesians, still others by none or both of these two language families
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