TY - JOUR
T1 - Second law of info-dynamics and the language diversity decline
AU - Kadin, Yuri
AU - Vopson, Melvin
PY - 2026/7/18
Y1 - 2026/7/18
N2 - Language diversity decline has been theoretically studied in this paper using a simple mathematical model. Our simulations are consistent with data showing the dynamics of decline in global Indigenous Linguistic Diversity (ILD) in America and Africa, for the time segment 1975 to 2005. Results consistently indicate that the dominant language population grows over time at the expense of the minority language populations, to the point of complete language extinctions over a sufficiently long period of time. The process is applicable at local geographical areas, countries, continents and possibly at planetary scale over very large periods of time. We also tested our model on the Inuktut language in Nunavut and the predictions on the linguistic evolution of the Inuktut language are rather accurately within 8% error margin of the real data. Most interestingly, we also show that this process is formally compatible with the second law of info-dynamics, because the linguistic diversity decline is associated with a reduction in the total information entropy of all languages in circulation.
AB - Language diversity decline has been theoretically studied in this paper using a simple mathematical model. Our simulations are consistent with data showing the dynamics of decline in global Indigenous Linguistic Diversity (ILD) in America and Africa, for the time segment 1975 to 2005. Results consistently indicate that the dominant language population grows over time at the expense of the minority language populations, to the point of complete language extinctions over a sufficiently long period of time. The process is applicable at local geographical areas, countries, continents and possibly at planetary scale over very large periods of time. We also tested our model on the Inuktut language in Nunavut and the predictions on the linguistic evolution of the Inuktut language are rather accurately within 8% error margin of the real data. Most interestingly, we also show that this process is formally compatible with the second law of info-dynamics, because the linguistic diversity decline is associated with a reduction in the total information entropy of all languages in circulation.
KW - language decline
KW - second law of infodynamics
KW - information theory
KW - language dynamics
U2 - 10.1080/09296174.2026.2700273
DO - 10.1080/09296174.2026.2700273
M3 - Article
SN - 0929-6174
JO - Journal of Quantitative Linguistics
JF - Journal of Quantitative Linguistics
ER -