Revisit Language Modeling Competition and Extinction: A Data-Driven Validation

Abstract

Understanding language competition and extinction is an interdisciplinary challenge, and math models provide a tool for interpreting linguistic census data and possibly predict the language shift trend at the population scale. In this study, new data from previously examined areas were modeled, specifically Catalan and Spanish in Catalonia, Spanish and English in Houston, Texas, Dutch and French in Brussels, Euskera and Spanish in Spain and French and English in Canada. Three mathematical models of the language competition have been validated. The first is the Abrams-Strogatz model, which treats populations as having two monolingual groups. The second is the Castello model, which considers bilingual speakers. The third is the Mira model, which considers language competition when the two languages have high similarities. It was found that the some of the data matched Abrams-Strogatz original model, but some divergences could still be addressed. It was also found that the Mira model needs some improvement in how it treats the differences between languages.