Is the rate of linguistic change constant

The computer simulation of language change in a finite, structured population which was presented in an earlier paper (‘Using Social Impact Theory to simulate language change’, Lin-gua 108, 95-117, 1999), is here extended to speech communities of different sizes. On the basis of the results it is proposed (a) that language change may be faster in small communi-ties; (b) that linguistic borrowing is one sense more likely in small communities; and (c) that the evolution of linguistically marked structures is more likely in small communities. It is argued that these three generalisations could he used to make sense of the different patterns of linguistic diversity observed in the Old and New Worlds, and the distribution of marked word orders in the world’s languages. 0 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved