Why are some languages confused for others? Investigating data from the Great Language Game.

Hedvig Skirgård,Lars Yencken,Seán G Roberts,Niels O Schiller

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165934

Hedvig Skirgård, Lars Yencken + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165934

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Abstract

In this paper we explore the results of a large-scale online game called ‘the Great Language Game’, in which people listen to an audio speech sample and make a forced-choice guess about the identity of the language from 2 or more alternatives. The data include 15 million guesses from 400 audio recordings of 78 languages. We investigate which languages are confused for which in the game, and if this correlates with the similarities that linguists identify between languages. This includes shared lexical items, similar sound inventories and established historical relationships. Our findings are, as expected, that players are more likely to confuse two languages that are objectively more similar. We also investigate factors that may affect players’ ability to accurately select the target language, such as how many people speak the language, how often the language is mentioned in written materials and the economic power of the target language community. We see that non-linguistic factors affect players’ ability to accurately identify the target. For example, languages with wider ‘global reach’ are more often identified correctly. This suggests that both linguistic and cultural knowledge influence the perception and recognition of languages and their similarity.

Highlights

Objective studies of similarities and differences of languages allow researchers to reconstruct patterns of historical change in linguistic structures [1], or social changes such as migrations [2, 3]
The final data includes more than 15 million guesses
The language pair most likely to be confused is Punjabi and Kannada (Kannada is mistaken for Punjabi in 55% of trials where Punjabi is an option), and the language pair least likely to be confused is French and Vietnamese (Vietnamese is mistaken for French in 0.9% of trials where French is an option)

Summary

Introduction

Objective studies of similarities and differences of languages allow researchers to reconstruct patterns of historical change in linguistic structures [1], or social changes such as migrations [2, 3]. Knowledge of linguistic variation is important in the day-to-day life of non-linguists. Often confounded by, a different accent or a foreign language is perhaps a universal human experience; we are often in situations where we hear snippets of unfamiliar conversation in a public space or on the radio, and we try to identify what it is we hear. People are sensitive to differences in pronunciation and vocabulary and are quick to link these differences to their knowledge of cultural differences.

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