What happens when two or more languages are spoken in an area: will one of them take over or will they co-exist? This abstract simulation is loosely inspired by the linguistic situation in Brussels, where Dutch and French are spoken. The demo shows how agent-based simulations, models of interactions between individuals, can help give better insight in real-world situations.
In the simulation, speakers of two languages interact with eachother and take over eachothers languages. The simulation lets you experiment with the settings for minority and majority language speakers and the cultural hubs of the minority language (e.g. schools), to see what the effect is on survival of the two languages.
Developed by Peter Dekker from the ABACUS group at the AI Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Thanks to Katie Mudd and Mathilde Josserand. This work was supported by funding from the Flemish Government under the Onderzoeksprogramma Artificiële Intelligentie (AI) Vlaanderen programme and by a PhD Fellowship fundamental research (11A2821N) of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO).