  Using the SSWL database of syntactic parameters of world languages, and the
MIT Media Lab data on language interactions, we construct a spin glass model of
language evolution. We treat binary syntactic parameters as spin states, with
languages as vertices of a graph, and assigned interaction energies along the
edges. We study a rough model of syntax evolution, under the assumption that a
strong interaction energy tends to cause parameters to align, as in the case of
ferromagnetic materials. We also study how the spin glass model needs to be
modified to account for entailment relations between syntactic parameters. This
modification leads naturally to a generalization of Potts models with external
magnetic field, which consists of a coupling at the vertices of an Ising model
and a Potts model with q=3, that have the same edge interactions. We describe
the results of simulations of the dynamics of these models, in different
temperature and energy regimes. We discuss the linguistic interpretation of the
parameters of the physical model.

Computation and Language;Disordered Systems and Neural Networks;Physics and Society