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Applying existing literature to a practical case Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Can we predict the extinction of a language? It doesn't sound easy, and it indeed shouldnt, but it shouldnt stop us from trying to model it.

I was recently interested in this topic and started reviewing some of the existing literature. I came across one article[1] that I enjoyed and thought of sharing.

So, in this post, Ill be sharing the insights of that paper, translated into (hopefully) a simple read and applied to a practical case so we can see data science and mathematical modeling in action.

I am Catalan and, for those who dont know, Catalan is a co-official language in Catalonia, Valencian Community, and the Balearic Islands (Spain) along with Spanish. Its also the official language in Andorra, found in the south of France and even in Alghero (Italy).

Its often that we see on local TV or media that the Catalan language is at risk of extinction. Focusing only on Catalonia, we can easily dig deeper into the case because the government takes care of studying the use of the language through whats called the survey of linguistic uses of the population (Enquesta dusos lingistics de la poblaci)[2].

See more here:

Modeling the Extinction of the Catalan Language | by Pol Marin | Jun, 2024 - Towards Data Science