Regensburg 2019 – scientific programme
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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme
SOE 2: Computational Social Science and Data Science I
SOE 2.4: Talk
Monday, April 1, 2019, 10:30–10:45, H17
A microscopic model of spatio-temporal language dynamics — •Michael Leitner1, Katharina Prochazka2,3, and Gero Vogl2 — 1Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany — 2Fakultät für Physik, Universität Wien, 1090 Wien, Austria — 3Institut für Slawistik, Universität Wien, 1090 Wien, Austria
With today’s modes of long-distance communication, the local spatial scale is only of secondary importance for present cases of language shift. In contrast, in former times language dynamics was driven by the relocations and physical contacts between people on small scales. An ideal study object is afforded by the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire, displaying both naturally evolving boundaries between language-defined populations, as well as small-scale heterogeneity due to colonist settlements [1].
For describing language dynamics at the scale of individual settlements, conventional reaction-diffusion approaches [2] are not applicable. Here we present a microscopic stochastic model, where individual births, deaths, relocations and language conversions are explicitly modelled. We parametrize our model with the historical census data available in ten-year intervals and give an interpretation of our findings in terms of the spatial interaction scale as well as a bias towards conversion to the language of the dominant group.
[1] K. Prochazka and G. Vogl, PNAS 114, 4365 (2017)
[2] A. Kandler, R. Unger, and J. Steele, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 365, 3855 (2010)