Spatial Evolution of Human Dialects

What is it about?

For centuries, academics have studied how people talk differently in different parts of the same country. James Burridge, a physicist from Portsmouth University, thinks he can explain many of these observations. In this paper, he has simulated England’s dialects, among other things. His new theory uses ideas from physics to predict where dialects should occur. It's all to do with our tendency to copy others around us. “Copying causes large dialect regions where one way of speaking dominates” says Burridge. According to Burridge, where dialect regions meet, you get surface tension. Surface tension is what causes oil and water to separate out into layers, and also what causes small bubbles in a bubble bath to merge into bigger ones. The boundaries where dialects meet act in a similar way. Dialect boundaries tend to get smoother and straighter over time, which stabilizes the dialects. Sometimes, surface tension causes boundaries to attach to indents in the coastline (e.g. the Bristol Channel). The theory also explains why sometimes, as you travel from place to place, you might hear a sudden difference in how people speak, whereas other times it’s a more gradual change. Another effect is that big cities such as London and Birmingham warp dialect boundaries, pushing them away. The bigger the city, the greater this effect. “It’s why many dialects have a big city at their heart. It’s also why new ways of speaking often spread outwards from a large urban centre” says Burridge. The fact that the model matches several features of real dialects suggests that there might be some truth in it. The approach may also be used to understand other aspects of human culture which also change from place to place.

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