The Rise and Fall of Language Diversity Through the Holocene
We combined statistical modeling with ethnographic data to trace global linguistic diversity over the Holocene. Our findings reveal a linguistic golden age between 3000 and 1000 years ago, where tens of thousands of languages existed. Contrary to common belief, the great loss of diversity began with the spread of early multinational empires, not recent colonial expansion, highlighting extinction's profound role in shaping human culture.
Great loss of linguistic diversity did not begin with recent colonial expansion but as multinational empires first spread along with their languages, pathogens, and cultures.