Simulation of the Complex System of Speech Interaction: Digital Visualizations

Computer simulation is the only practical way to model diffusion of cultural features, including speech. We describe the use of a cellular automaton to model feature diffusion as the adaptive aspect of the complex system of speech. Throughout hundreds of iterations that correspond to the daily interaction of speakers across time, we can watch regional distributional patterns emerge as a consequence of simple update rules. A key feature of our simulations is validation with respect to distributions known to occur in survey data. We focus on the importance of appropriate visualizations to observe what is happening during the process of diffusion, with comparison between visualizations of actual survey data and visualizations applied to our simulation. In this way we believe that we are breaking new ground in simulation of cultural interactions as complex systems. The study of speech as a complex system addresses language as an aspect of culture that emerges from human interaction. We believe that successful simulation of speech in cultural interaction as a complex system can suggest how other aspects of the humanities, such as sites or artifacts or styles in archaeology, can diffuse and change across space and time. Our successful simulation confirms our complex systems approach, and indicates how appropriate use of visualizations makes this possible.