Mathematical Models of the Distribution and Change of Linguistic Information in Language Communities: a Case of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Chinese Language Communities

Abstract

The paper presents a theoretical analysis and computer simulations of the distribution and changes of the linguistic information in two model language communities: Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Chinese. Simulations show that out of two main hypotheses of the formation of the Proto-Indo-European languages, the Anatolian hypotheses and the Kurgan hypotheses, the latter is better consistent with the time estimates obtained in this study. The results obtained for Proto-Indo-European communities may also be used in the analysis of Asian language communities. In particular, the similarity of Chinese and Proto-Indo-European languages in terms of the relationship between the verb and the noun opens the possibility of applying our method to the analysis of the Proto-Sino-Tibetan language family. A possibility of creating a single national language Pŭtōnghuà (普通话) in the modern China was investigated. The results of the present study also suggest that the developed models look like a quite promising new instrument for studying linguistic information transfer in complex social and linguistic systems.