Modeling language ideologies for the dynamics of languages in contact

Area of Science:

• Sociolinguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Language Dynamics

Background:

• Multilingual societies feature diverse language varieties and mechanisms of language shift.
• Existing models often neglect the impact of language ideologies and attitudes on language contact.
• Language ideologies encompass beliefs and assumptions about language forms, influencing social perceptions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To incorporate language ideologies into models of language shift in contact varieties.
• To analyze the role of speaker preferences as a parameter in language shift dynamics.
• To investigate how interaction levels between differing preferences affect language variety coexistence and dominance.

Main Methods:

• Development of a computational model for language contact varieties.
• Inclusion of speaker preferences, influenced by language ideologies, as a key parameter.
• Simulation of interaction dynamics between individuals with opposing preferences.

Main Results:

• Speaker preference can override language prestige in driving language shift.
• Increased interaction between opposing preferences reduces coexistence, potentially leading to variety extinction.
• Non-trivial transitions observed, including extinction, return to coexistence, and eventual dominance of a previously extinct variety.
• Finite-size effects show exponential increase in coexistence duration with network size.

Conclusions:

• Language ideologies, operationalized through speaker preferences, are critical for understanding language shift.
• The degree of interaction significantly shapes the outcomes of language contact and variety dynamics.
• This work offers a quantitative framework for studying language ideologies in sociolinguistics.