Research: What is the secret of the power of the most influential languages?

Research at MIT tries to find out what makes English the dominant language in the world? Is it really worth learning Chinese to pave the way to global success? Why is the position of Arabic in the world relatively low, despite the large number of its speakers? Which languages ​​have the greatest international influence?

What makes English the dominant language in the world? Is it really worth learning Chinese to pave the way to global success? Why is the position of Arabic in the world relatively low, despite the large number of its speakers? Which languages ​​have the greatest international influence?

Until now, linguists believed that the most influential languages ​​are those with the largest number of speakers or the countries that speak them are the richest. However, this theory has difficulty explaining how English prevails, for example, over Chinese, whose number of speakers is much greater, or over Norwegian, whose GDP per capita is much greater than that of English-speaking countries. The researchers of the Macro Connections group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were involved in solving these questions. The group, led by Prof. Cesar Hidalgo, tries to understand the world through statistical analysis as well as visualization (visualization) of many data. "Central languages ​​have a lot of power, because they dominate the flow of information," says research student Shahar Ronan, who led the work. "Language is measured by the ability to establish contact and mediate between different cultures, and many times, speakers of two languages ​​communicate with each other through a third language. That's why we tried to trace these connections, to examine how a certain language functions in space."

A language social network

To measure the connections between the languages, the researchers used three main tools: the social network "Twitter", the online encyclopedia "Wikipedia" and tracking book translations. On Twitter, the researchers analyzed about a billion tweets, found about 17 million users tweeting in two or more languages, and used them to map the connections between 73 languages. In "Wikipedia", the researchers examined thousands of entries that appear in many languages, and examined the connections between the languages ​​(taking care to select entries written by human editors, not automated software). To further expand the information base, the researchers mapped the global database that brings together approximately 2.2 million books in 1,000 different languages ​​and examined how many books were translated into each language and from each language. The visual mapping of the data revealed that certain languages ​​are a kind of hubs that link many other languages. The researchers call them Hubs - the customer term from the aviation field and describes a central airport, which serves as a hub for many onward flights (and also a routing center in computer communications). The biggest focus, in all the areas examined, was of course the English language. Other major centers were French, German, Russian and Spanish. "We found that what makes a language central is not the number of speakers, but the number of multilingual speakers, and its system of links to other languages," explains Ronan. "A well-connected language will have a very large impact, even if the number of speakers is not as large as that of other languages. For example, Spanish has more influence than Chinese, and a language like Dutch, many of whose speakers are multilingual, has a greater influence than Arabic, whose number of speakers is much greater." The research findings are published in the journal of the American Academy of Sciences, PNAS, and are also concentrated on the site established by Ronen and his colleagues, Global Language Network (link at the bottom of the page). Ronan himself, received a qualified degree from MIT for the research, and continued from there to work in the laboratories of the giant software company Microsoft in Seattle.

A very important man

Another question that the researchers tried to answer was whether speakers of certain languages ​​have a higher chance of being published. In order to get a proper perspective of time, they decided to focus on those who were active in the years 1,850-1,950, and in order to sort out those with the greatest influence, they chose personalities who have Wikipedia entries about them in at least 25 languages, as well as personalities who appear in the "pantheon" list compiled by researchers at MIT A few years ago. The result was a database of about 5,000 famous people and the findings were a clear correlation between the number of celebrities who speak a certain language, and the extent of the influence of the language as it emerged in the other part of the study. With that, Ronen clarifies that from these data it is impossible to determine cause and effect. That is, it is too early to conclude whether a speaker of a certain language has a high chance of becoming famous precisely because he was born into it, or whether the large number of people who have publicity increases the power of a certain language.

the Holy tongue

The research by Ronen and his colleagues also yielded interesting findings about the status of Hebrew in the world. Of the hundreds of languages ​​tested, in terms of the number of speakers (about 10 million), Hebrew ranks 60th in the world. However, in terms of influence and cultural status, her ranking is much higher. It is in 15th place in terms of the volume of book translations to and from it, and in 20th place in terms of the number of entries on Wikipedia. Even on the "Twitter" network, which was not as successful in Israel as in many other countries, Hebrew is ranked 36th, still very high in relation to the number of its speakers.

"Understanding which languages ​​are related to others, can help us understand which languages ​​are worth learning, for example on a personal level. It may be worthwhile to turn to Chinese if we want exposure to the markets there, but French or German can give us a greater global influence", concludes Ronen. "The findings are also important for organizations, and even for countries. A small country that has a strong national language, such as Hebrew, can examine whether it wants to invest in the local language to strengthen national identity, or invest in a related language such as English, to improve its ability to spread ideas around the world."

For research