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Using lexical language models to detect borrowings in monolingual wordlists
(Public Library of Science, 2020-12-01)
Lexical borrowing, the transfer of words from one language to another, is one of the most frequent processes in language evolution. In order to detect borrowings, linguists make use of various strategies, combining evidence from various sources. Despite the increasing popularity of computational approaches in comparative linguistics, automated approaches to lexical borrowing detection are still in their infancy, disregarding many aspects of the evidence that is routinely considered by human experts. One example for this kind of evidence are phonological and phonotactic clues that are especially useful for the detection of recent borrowings that have not yet been adapted to the structure of their recipient languages. In this study, we test how these clues can be exploited in automated frameworks for borrowing detection. By modeling phonology and phonotactics with the support of Support Vector Machines, Markov models, and recurrent neural networks, we propose a framework for the supervised detection of borrowings in mono-lingual wordlists. Based on a substantially revised dataset in which lexical borrowings have been thoroughly annotated for 41 different languages from different families, featuring a large typological diversity, we use these models to conduct a series of experiments to investigate their performance in mono-lingual borrowing detection. While the general results appear largely unsatisfying at a first glance, further tests show that the performance of our models improves with increasing amounts of attested borrowings and in those cases where most borrowings were introduced by one donor language alone. Our results show that phonological and phonotactic clues derived from monolingual language data alone are often not sufficient to detect borrowings when using them in isolation. Based on our detailed findings, however, we express hope that they could prove to be useful in integrated approaches that take multi-lingual information into account.
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How to commentate a soccer match in Shipibo-Konibo (Pano)?
(University of Campinas, 2020-02-12)
The present paper lists and illustrates eleven strategies that are systematically used by Shipibo-Konibo speakers in order to comment live soccer matches in the context of an indigenous soccer cup informally called “Mundialito Shipibo”. We argue that these lexical, morphosyntactic and discursive strategies can be classified into three types according to their function: iconic strategies, which attempt to present the information more vividly (onomatopoeic forms and ideophones, reduplications, parallel structures and hearsay-quotatives); emotional strategies, which are used by soccer commentators to express their emotions and their feelings (interjections, player-directed speech and diminutives); and proximity strategies, which bring the speech closer to the Shipibo-Konibo audience (lexical Shipibo-Konibo innovations, vocatives, evidential access configurations and code alternations). These various strategies are crucial for understanding the new social dynamics that the Shipibo-Konibo language is getting into as a consequence of becoming an urban language, and are clearly creating a new speech genre. The new social uses that the Shipibo-Konibo people are giving to their language and the features that the language is developing in this new social context are crucial to understand the future of Shipibo-Konibo and other minority languages in Peru.
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On the von Neumann entropy of language networks: applications to cross-linguistic comparisons
(IOP Publishing Ltd, 2021-12-01)
Words are not isolated entities within a language. In this paper, we measure the number of choices transmitted in natural language by means of the von Neumann entropy of language networks. This quantity, introduced in Quantum Information accounts, provides a detailed characterization of network complexities. The simulations are based on a large parallel corpus of 362 languages across 55 linguistic families (focusing on the sub-sample of 85 languages from the Americas). With this, we constructed language networks as a simple way to describe word connectivity patterns for each language. We studied several aspects of the von Neumann entropy of language networks. First, we discovered large groups of languages with low average degree and high von Neumann entropy. The results suggested also that large von Neumann entropy is associated with word entropy (as a proxy for morphological complexity), and is inversely related to degree regularity. This means that there are pressures at play that keep a balance between word morphological complexity and patterns of connections between words. We suggested also a strong influence of functional words on low von Neumann entropy languages. Our approach is thus a simple network-based contribution to establish cross-linguistic language comparisons from textual data.
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Grambank reveals the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity and highlights the impact of language loss
(Center for Open Science, 2022-12-04)
While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2,400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on the structural diversity of the world's languages, evaluate constraints on linguistic diversity, and identify the world's most unusual languages. An analysis of the consequences of language loss reveals that the reduction in diversity will be strikingly uneven across the major linguistic regions of the world. Without sustained efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages, our linguistic window into human history, cognition and culture will be seriously fragmented.
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Untangling the evolution of body-part terminology in Pano: conservative versus innovative traits in body-part lexicalization
(Royal Society, 2022-12-09)
Although language-family specific traits which do not find direct counterparts outside a given language family are usually ignored in quantitative phylogenetic studies, scholars have made ample use of them in qualitative investigations, revealing their potential for identifying language relationships. An example of such a family specific trait are body-part expressions in Pano languages, which are often lexicalized forms, composed of bound roots (also called body-part prefixes in the literature) and non-productive derivative morphemes (called here body-part formatives). We use various statistical methods to demonstrate that whereas body-part roots are generally conservative, body-part formatives exhibit diverse chronologies and are often the result of recent and parallel innovations. In line with this, the phylogenetic structure of body-part roots projects the major branches of the family, while formatives are highly non-tree-like. Beyond its contribution to the phylogenetic analysis of Pano languages, this study provides significative insights into the role of grammatical innovations for language classification, the origin of morphological complexity in the Amazon and the phylogenetic signal of specific grammatical traits in language families.
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Language Classification in Western Amazonia
(University of Campinas, 2023-02-16)
The languages of the Pano and Takana families exhibit a considerable number of lexical and structural affinities that cannot be ascribed to mere chance and are not readily detectable instances of borrowing. After the comparative studies by Key (1968) and Girard (1971) the proposal of a genetic relationship between these two families was generally accepted (e.g. Loos 1973, 2005; Suárez 1973; Kaufman 1990; Campbell 1997). Without solid argumentation, however, this classification was later put into question (Fabre 1998; Loos 1999; Fleck 2013) and, even today, there is no full consensus as to whether the observed similarities are due to genetic inheritance or long-term language contact. The present paper offers lexical and grammatical evidence in support of the hypothesis that Pano and Takana are genetically connected. Comparing for the first time what can be considered Proto-Pano and Proto-Takana reconstructions, it is shown that 18 of the 40 items in the basic vocabulary list proposed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (asjp) (Holman et al. 2008) might be cognate; this includes 9 body-part terms. Also, a set of alleged grammatical cognates are assembled, and shared constructions involving motion verbal morphology, intransive and transitive auxiliaries, transitivity harmony restrictions, and switch-reference are discussed.
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Grambank Reveals the Importance of Genealogical Constraints on Linguistic Diversity and Highlights the Impact of Language Loss
(American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2023-04-21)
While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here, we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on the structural diversity of the world’s languages, evaluate constraints on linguistic diversity, and identify the world’s most unusual languages. An analysis of the consequences of language loss reveals that the reduction in diversity will be strikingly uneven across the major linguistic regions of the world. Without sustained efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages, our linguistic window into human history, cognition, and culture will be seriously fragmented.
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The forgotten mid vowels
(John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2026-07-10)
This study re-examines the phonological inventory of Proto-Pano, challenging the prevailing view that it had only four oral vowels. Through a comparative analysis of 23 contemporary Pano languages/varieties, we reconstruct a Proto-Pano system with two additional mid vowels, proposing a six-vowel inventory. This finding diverges from all previous reconstructions, which overlooked historically significant distributional differences between mid vowels in Northern Pano languages, Kakataibo, and Kaxarari. We argue that Pano mid vowels exhibit both conservative and innovative traits, questioning the assumption that all Pano mid vowels are innovations. Our analysis highlights the role of merger in shaping Pano phonological diversity, supporting a six-vowel reconstruction as a more accurate reflection of the comparative data. This revised perspective underscores the importance of carefully analyzing sound correspondence patterns and offers new insights into the historical evolution and internal classification of the Pano language family. Additionally, it calls for a thorough revision of previous Proto-Pano reconstructions and opens promising avenues for future research on the Pano-Takana stock.
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Striking global similarities in dog–human interactions
(Nature Portfolio, 2026-12-01)
Most of our knowledge about the dog-human relationship comes from studies with dogs from 'WEIRD' (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies. Here, we investigate cultural differences in dog-owner interactions worldwide. To achieve this, we developed a test battery comprising six well-established social-cognitive experiments and a questionnaire that assessed the psychological and practical aspects of the dog-human bond. We tested hunting dogs alongside their owners in five rural societies across culturally diverse locations in various countries: Vanuatu, Mongolia, Madagascar, Peru, and Germany. Despite dramatic cultural and environmental differences, we found that dog-human relationships were remarkably similar. Residual differences may be attributed to variations in hunting techniques and differences between WEIRD and non-WEIRD societies.
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Making up numbers in Pano languages: idiosyncratic and unconventional base-free quantification inventories in Amazonia
(Royal Society, 2025-10-20)
Amazonian languages typically exhibit very small numeral systems or lack numerals altogether. Increasing economic and cultural pressures, however, often motivate the emergence of more complex inventories for exact quantification. Headwaters Pano languages from Amazonia historically had two lexical items that can be rendered as the numerals 'one' and 'two'. We argue here, however, that they are not either etymologically or synchronically proper numerals (like the English ones are) and can be better glossed as 'single/one' (but also 'a few') and 'pair/two'. For larger quantities ('three' to 'ten'), speakers report idiosyncratic quantifying expressions based on different compositional strategies that recruit the lexical items for 'single/one', 'pair/two', but also 'hand' and, in some cases, other body-part expressions and motion verbs as well. We discuss these idiosyncratic quantifying expressions, showing that they do not present systematic and productive number bases; they exhibit unusual patterns of inter- and intra-speaker variability (i.e. they are poorly conventionalized); and they are rarely used in discourse. Based on these properties, we conclude that these quantifying expressions of Headwaters Pano languages are not numerals proper. We then explore the implications of these salient characteristics for the cross-cultural understanding of quantification and the emergence of numerical systems and the study of anumeric languages in Amazonia.This article is part of the theme issue 'A solid base for scaling up: the structure of numeration systems'.
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