ArticleRoyal Society open science2021
The geography and development of language isolates.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Macroevolutionary analysis of polysynthesis shows that language complexity is more likely to evolve in small, isolated populations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Global language geography and language history: challenges and opportunities.Open research Europe · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This contribution theorizes the historical dynamics of so-called language isolates, languages which cannot be demonstrated to belong to any known language family. On the basis of a qualitative review of how isolates, language families or their branches lost territory to other languages through time, I develop a simple model for the genesis of isolates as a function of proximity to major geographical barriers, and pit it against an alternative view that sees them as one manifestation of linguistic diversity generally. Using a variety of statistical techniques, I test both accounts quantitatively against a worldwide dataset of language locations and distances to geographical barriers, and find support for the position that views language isolates as one manifestation of linguistic diversity generally. However, I caution that different processes which are not necessarily mutually exclusive may have shaped the present-day distribution of language isolates. These may form elements of a broader theory of language isolates in particular and language diversity in general.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.