29.04.2025 Anna Graff

Abstract: In this talk, I will present two global studies leveraging insights from population genetics as a proxy for (language) contact and isolation. The first study uses global patterns of genetic admixture as a proxy for contact, and then quantifies the impact of contact between unrelated languages on linguistic structures. The second study uses excess genetic homozygosity to infer the degree of local contact vs. isolation at different geographical scales as part of a geostatistical analysis of global structural linguistic diversity.

Both studies confirm that overall, contact favors structural convergence. Isolation further favors structural diversification. Beyond these overall trends, however, we find substantial variation in how individual features respond to contact and isolation. The differences only partly align with expectations from case studies or from second language acquisition studies, in line with other recent challenges of received scholarship.