3 ms·
But it's selection based on non-linguistic criteria, like who's better at violence and economics. So it affects language, but it is not based in language, and t
by rvense 5y ago
But it's selection based on non-linguistic criteria, like who's better at violence and economics. So it affects language, but it is not based in language, and thus GP's insinuation that this linguistic feature is a "bad idea from a natural selection point of view" and this is somehow related to those languages' so-called obscurity does not make sense.
- renewiltord 5y agoThat makes sense. There is low evidence that having this characteristic affects the assimilation. Okay, colour me convinced.
- rvense 5y agoFor it to make sense, language replacement (which is an observable phenomenon) would have to happen by communities learning a bunch of different languages and picking the one that they liked best. That's just not how it goes. You learn a new language to speak with new people that you're interested in, regardless of how weird and hard to learn their language is.