Workshop: The geography of linguistic evolution

Where and when: EVOLANG XVI conference, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 7th of April 2026

Conveners: Judith Verstegen, Sietze Norder, Nicholas Emlen, Derek Karssenberg, Rik van Gijn

Linguistic diversity is unevenly distributed across the globe: hotspots of language, genealogical, and structural diversity are surrounded by large areas with a low linguistic variation. This non-random spatial distribution suggests that, mediated through cultural behavior, the biophysical environment plays a key role in the evolution of linguistic diversity. This workshop brings together linguists, geographers, and scientists from related domains (e.g. ecology, anthropology) to discuss current research and future research directions on connections between geography and linguistic evolution. We will cover theoretical frameworks, case studies with empirical data, simulation and statistical modelling studies, as well as research directed towards innovation of research methodologies to study connections between geography and linguistics.

Schedule for April 7th

Accepted oral presentations: 

• Contact helps dispreferred combinations of typological features to survive, Deepthi Gopal, Henri Kauhanen, Christopher Kitching, Tobias Galla, and Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero
• Modeling language contact with detailed speaker territories, Miri Mertner
• Global patterns of linguistic diversity in digital and non-digital spaces, Hannes Essfors, Andreas Baumann, Juliane Benson, Hannes Fellner, Julia Neidhardt, and Katharina Zeh
• From Points to Polygons: Modeling Spatial Autocorrelation, Muhammad Rehan and David Goldstein
• Socio-Ecological Dynamics of Language Diversification, Thomas Roberts, Paul Widmer, and John Mansfield

Accepted posters: 

• From correlated feature evolution to correlated spatial diffusion, Matías Guzmán Naranjo and Laura Becker
• Bayesian Modeling of Areal Features in Taiwan and Beyond: Evidence from Phoneme Inventories, I-Ying Lin
• Phonetics at High Altitude: How Biophysical Environment Shapes Sound Systems, Husam Maayah - not coming
• Diachronic language dynamics of Eurasia and beyond in geographic perspective, Addison Blanchard
• Locative polyfunctionality in Pama-Nyungan: Disentangling space, phylogeny and ahistorical factors, Jayden Macklin
• Understanding how community-level processes shape language diversity: an agent-based simulation modelling approach, Anke Posma, Judith Verstegen, Sietze Norder, and Derek Karssenberg
• Using AI for dialectology analysis: a map experiment, Ruslana Margova
• Feature Stability and Change in the Languages of South America, Zoe Poirier Maruenda

Instructions for presenters

For presenters of oral presentations: You will be allocated a 20-minute time slot, consisting of 15 minutes for your presentation and 5 minutes for discussion. You can either use PowerPoint and present from our laptop, or use your desired software and connect your own laptop to the beamer. All presenters of oral presentations will be asked to join the roundtable at the end of the workshop, in which we'll discuss common challenges and theses realted to the geography of linguistic evolution.

For presenters of posters: Please make a single PowerPoint slide and send it to us (j.a.verstegen@uu.nl). We'll paste all slides in a single presentation, in which each presenter has a maximum of two minutes for their pitch. In addition, make a poster (max A0 in portrait or A1 in landscape) and bring it with you in print; workshop participants can view the posters in the coffee breaks.