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We introduce an experimental paradigm for studying the cumulative cultural evolution of language. In doing so we provide the first experimental validation for the idea that cultural transmission can lead to the appearance of design without a designer. Our experiments involve the iterated learning of artificial languages by human participants. We show that languages transmitted culturally evolve in such a way as to maximize their own transmissibility: over time, the languages in our experiments become easier to learn and increasingly structured. Furthermore, this structure emerges purely as a consequence of the transmission of language over generations, without any intentional design on the part of individual language learners. Previous computational and mathematical models suggest that iterated learning provides an explanation for the structure of human language and link particular aspects of linguistic structure with particular constraints acting on language during its transmission. The experimental work presented here shows that the predictions of these models, and models of cultural evolution more generally, can be tested in the laboratory.

Intellectuals and politicians have long sought linguistic homogeneity in a given geographic area, especially since the beginning of the contemporary period. Although this homogeneity has almost never been fully achieved, the desired language has become real to the extent that the processes of standardisation have modified reality.

One of the oldest problems in linguistics is reconstructing the words that appeared in the protolanguages from which modern languages evolved. Identifying the forms of these ancient languages makes it possible to evaluate proposals about the nature of language change and to draw inferences about human history. Protolanguages are typically reconstructed using a painstaking manual process known as the comparative method. We present a family of probabilistic models of sound change as well as algorithms for performing inference in these models. The resulting system automatically and accurately reconstructs protolanguages from modern languages. We apply this system to 637 Austronesian languages, providing an accurate, large-scale automatic reconstruction of a set of protolanguages. Over 85% of the system’s reconstructions are within one character of the manual reconstruction provided by a linguist specializing in Austronesian languages. Being able to automatically reconstruct large numbers of languages provides a useful way to quantitatively explore hypotheses about the factors determining which sounds in a language are likely to change over time. We demonstrate this by showing that the reconstructed Austronesian protolanguages provide compelling support for a hypothesis about the relationship between the function of a sound and its probability of changing that was first proposed in 1955.

Akkadian, a Semitic language attested in writing from 2600 BCE until the first century CE, was the language of Mesopotamia for nearly three millennia. This volume examines the language from a comparative and historical linguistic perspective. Inspired by the work of renowned linguist John Huehnergard and featuring contributions from top scholars in the field, Bēl Lišāni showcases the latest research on Akkadian linguistics. Chapters focus on a wide range of topics, including lexicon, morphology, word order, syntax, verbal semantics, and subgrouping. Building upon Huehnergard's pioneering studies focused on the identification of Proto-Akkadian features, the contributors explore linguistic innovations in the language from historical and comparative perspectives. In doing so, they open the way for further etymological, dialectical, and lexical research into Akkadian. An important update on and synthesis of the research in Akkadian linguistics, this volume will be welcomed by Semitists, Akkadian language specialists, and scholars and students interested in historical linguistics. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Øyvind Bjøru, Maksim Kalinin, N. J. C. Kouwenberg, Sergey Loesov, Jacob J. de Ridder, Ambjörn Sjörs, Michael P. Streck, and Juan-Pablo Vita.

Diachronic treebanks allow for a new approach to diachronic studies of syntactic phenomena. These papers report research on various diachronic matters supported such by evidence, covering a wide range of languages, including English, French, Russian, Latin and Ancient Greek. Originally published as Diachronica 35:3 (2018).

Languages, like genes, evolve by a process of descent with modification. This striking similarity between biological and linguistic evolution allows us to apply phylogenetic methods to explore how languages, as well as the people who speak them, are related to one another through evolutionary history. Language phylogenies constructed with lexical data have so far revealed population expansions of Austronesian, Indo-European and Bantu speakers. However, how robustly a phylogenetic approach can chart the history of language evolution and what language phylogenies reveal about human prehistory must be investigated more thoroughly on a global scale. Here we report a phylogeny of 59 Japonic languages and dialects. We used this phylogeny to estimate time depth of its root and compared it with the time suggested by an agricultural expansion scenario for Japanese origin. In agreement with the scenario, our results indicate that Japonic languages descended from a common ancestor approximately 2182 years ago. Together with archaeological and biological evidence, our results suggest that the first farmers of Japan had a profound impact on the origins of both people and languages. On a broader level, our results are consistent with a theory that agricultural expansion is the principal factor for shaping global linguistic diversity.

Der vorliegende Band liefert eine eingehende Untersuchung umbrischer und hethitischer Rituale und ritualbezogener Texte und hebt sich besonders durch die interdisziplinäre Perspektive und innovative Methodik von bisherigen Arbeiten in diesem Themenfeld ab. Durch die Untersuchung der jeweiligen funktionalen und kommunikativen Kontexte demonstriert Theresa Roth, wie aktuelle Fragestellungen der linguistischen Pragmatik und besonders der Fachsprachenforschung erfolgreich auf historische Sprachstufen angewandt werden können. Damit leistet sie einen mageblichen Beitrag zu der Frage, wie ritualbezogene Textsorten durch textstrukturelle und kommunikative Parameter geprägt und differenziert werden. This monograph contributes substantially to the identification and description of the communicative and textual parameters which characterize ritual language as a language for special purposes. The interdisciplinary approach used by the author is methodologically innovative within the field of historical linguistics. By examining the functional and communicative contexts of ritual and religious texts from Hittite and Umbrian, Theresa Roth demonstrates how current questions of pragmatics and research on languages for special purposes can be successfully transferred to ancient languages.

The evolution of languages provides a unique opportunity to study human population history. The origin of Semitic and the nature of dispersals by Semitic-speaking populations are of great importance to our understanding of the ancient history of the Middle East and Horn of Africa. Semitic populations are associated with the oldest written languages and urban civilizations in the region, which gave rise to some of the world's first major religious and literary traditions. In this study, we employ Bayesian computational phylogenetic techniques recently developed in evolutionary biology to analyse Semitic lexical data by modelling language evolution and explicitly testing alternative hypotheses of Semitic history. We implement a relaxed linguistic clock to date language divergences and use epigraphic evidence for the sampling dates of extinct Semitic languages to calibrate the rate of language evolution. Our statistical tests of alternative Semitic histories support an initial divergence of Akkadian from ancestral Semitic over competing hypotheses (e.g. an African origin of Semitic). We estimate an Early Bronze Age origin for Semitic approximately 5750 years ago in the Levant, and further propose that contemporary Ethiosemitic languages of Africa reflect a single introduction of early Ethiosemitic from southern Arabia approximately 2800 years ago.

ALS is a terminal disease of motor neurons that is characterized by accumulation of proteinaceous deposits in affected cells. Pathological deposition of mutated Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) accounts for ∼20% of the familial ALS (fALS) cases. However, understanding the molecular link between mutation and disease has been difficult, given that more than 140 different SOD1 mutants have been observed in fALS patients. In addition, the molecular origin of sporadic ALS (sALS) is unclear. By dissecting the amino acid sequence of SOD1, we identified four short segments with a high propensity for amyloid fibril formation. We find that fALS mutations in these segments do not reduce their propensity to form fibrils. The atomic structures of two fibril-forming segments from the C terminus, ¹⁰¹DSVISLS ¹⁰⁷ and ¹⁴⁷GVIGIAQ ¹⁵³, reveal tightly packed β-sheets with steric zipper interfaces characteristic of the amyloid state. Based on these structures, we conclude that both C-terminal segments are likely to form aggregates if available for interaction. Proline substitutions in ¹⁰¹DSVISLS ¹⁰⁷ and ¹⁴⁷GVIGIAQ ¹⁵³ impaired nucleation and fibril growth of full-length protein, confirming that these segments participate in aggregate formation. Our hypothesis is that improper protein maturation and incompletely folded states that render these aggregation-prone segments available for interaction offer a common molecular pathway for sALS and fALS.

The Brave Shall Inherit the Earth is the motto of the Rajputana Rifles, the oldest rifle regiment in the pre-World-War-Two Indian Army. It is a fitting epitaph to this remarkable young officer who commanded the mortar platoon in 3/6th Rajputana Rifles during the 14th Army's invasion of Burma in 1944._x000D__x000D_Denis O'Leary came from a family of soldiers; his father was also RajRif. Just out of officer training, a practicing Catholic, handsome, athletic, twenty years old, Denis joined 3/6th Rajputana Rifles on the eve of Field Marshal Slim's invasion of Burma in 1944._x000D__x000D_This book is the story of his Regiment in that Homeric engagement. It is also about the close friendships formed in war between a British officer and his Rajput and Punjabi 'Mussalman' soldiers._x000D__x000D_The Regiment 'had been fortunate in our introduction to war. It had been a gradual process.' Luckily Denis learnt quickly and by the time he came to his Kurukshetra - a decisive battle to hold Pear Hill against suicidal Japanese attacks during the Irrawaddy crossings - his mettle had been tested and forged. _x000D__x000D_During this battle, in which he won his first Military Cross, he was badly wounded by shrapnel and evacuated back to India for the rest of the war, only re-joining his beloved battalion in pre-Independence Burma, which this account also covers._x000D__x000D_Denis O'Leary was a life-long soldier, he is a modest historian, he writes simply but eloquently. There are few books so hauntingly beautiful about something so savage as war.