The island biogeography of languages
Global Ecology and Biogeography • Vol/Iss. 21(10) • Blackwell Publishing Ltd • • Published In • Pages: 958-967 •
By Gavin, Michael C. , Sibanda, Nokuthaba
Hypothesis
Language diversity among Pacific islands will be positively associated with large land area, low distance from closest continent, and duration of human settlement (959).
Note
Determined by fitness of models measured by Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). Variables in other models include rainfall, absolute latitude, mean growing season, rainfall, number of ecoregions, continental dust fall, tephra, and island type. Land area on its own maintained a significant correlation to linguistic diversity (see other hypothesis).
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple regression | Supported | p < 0.05 | R-squared = 0.56 | UNKNOWN |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic Area | Independent | Location |
| Linguistic diversity | Dependent | Linguistic Identification |
| Distance to nearest continent | Independent | Location |
| Duration of human settlement | Independent | Historical Reconstruction |