Language Change among Memoryless Learners Simulated in Language Dynamics Equations

Language change is considered as a transition of a user population among languages. Language dynamics equations represent such a transition of population. Our purpose in this paper is to develop a new formalism of language dynamics based on a realistic situation of multiple language contact. We assume a situation where memoryless learners are exposed to a number of languages. Our experiments show that contact with other language speakers during the acquisition of a first language reduces learning accuracy and prevents the emergence of a dominant language. We suppose there is a special communicative language which has a higher similarity to some languages than others; when learners are frequently exposed to a variety of languages, these similar languages attract a relatively higher proportion of the population. We discuss the simulation results from the viewpoint of the language bioprogram hypothesis.