The Mathematics of Language

If your native language (Irish, Igbo, Ilocano, . . .) is threatened by competition from another language (likely English!), and if preserving that language is important, what options do you have? Which approach to language preservation is most likely to be effective? Or... How much time do you have before the language is effectively dead? Surprisingly, tools from mathematical ecology, physics, and other seemingly remote fields have been adapted to answer questions about the evolution, competition, and even origin of human languages.

Our speaker, Dr. Ben Ford, is Professor of Mathematics at Sonoma State University. His research background lies in combinatorics and group theory, and he works to further equity in math education.

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