📰 A team from the University of Geneva, Pasteur Institute and the NCCR Evolving Language shows that virtually all animal species have been vocalizing in a common rhythm for hundreds of millions of years. New article on our website. evolvinglanguage.ch/the-universa...

The universal tempo of animal communication - NCCR Evolving Language

A team from the University of Geneva, Pasteur Institute and the NCCR Evolving Language shows that virtually all animal species have been vocalizing in a common rhythm for hundreds of millions of years...

evolvinglanguage.ch

💬 Languages are diverse: thousands are spoken worldwide, and they differ widely in the structures they use. 🧬 Human DNA variation preserves the history of populations and individuals. 🤝 Are these two dimensions of human diversity related? 🔗 evolvinglanguage.ch/isolated-hum...

Isolated human groups speak more diversified languages - NCCR Evolving Language

Languages are diverse: thousands are spoken worldwide, and they differ widely in the structures they use. Human DNA variation preserves the history of populations and individuals. Are these two dimens...

evolvinglanguage.ch

Very happy this is out! @markstoneking.bsky.social and I tried to test this correlation 20 years ago but didn’t have enough data. Now this has become possible thanks to new databases and fantastic work by lead author @annagraff.bsky.social and an absolutely wonderful team!

Anna Graff@annagraff.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Check out our new paper! (1/5) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @err-ring.bsky.social @kkshimizu1.bsky.social @markstoneking.bsky.social @balthasarbickel.bsky.social @chiarabarbieri.bsky.social @isle-uzh.bsky.social @nccrlanguage.bsky.social

The Department of Basic Neurosciences of the Faculté de médecine - UNIGE and the NCCR Evolving Language are looking for an Assistant Professor with Tenure Track or Associate Professor in Computational Neuroscience. Apply before May 26th! Full details here: jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

I'm hiring! 2 x postdocs in Cognitive Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics, to work on the cultural history of Australia and Papua. More details in link below, and please do repost or share elsewhere! www.isle.uzh.ch/en/jobs/post...

With @chiarabarbieri.bsky.social @annagraff.bsky.social @balthasarbickel.bsky.social @kkshimizu1.bsky.social Damián E. Blasi, Erik J. Ringen, Vladimir Bajić, Daphné Bavelier, and Brigitte Pakendorf.

Our paper is out! We linked genetic and linguistic data to study how contact changes language and found consistent patterns of borrowing across contact situations @balthasarbickel.bsky.social @chiarabarbieri.bsky.social @nccrlanguage.bsky.social @isle-uzh.bsky.social doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv7521

Patterns of genetic admixture reveal similar rates of borrowing across diverse scenarios of language contact

Human population contact leads to consistently similar rates of linguistic borrowing, but effects vary across linguistic features.

science.org

Exciting new opening @nccrlanguage.bsky.social with the option of permanent extension. If you work in cutting-edge stats and are interested in joining a highly inter-disciplinary, vibrant community, don't hesitate to apply at tinyurl.com/3fxwjk8e

📰 A team of researchers from the University of Neuchâtel studied the ability to associate a new sound with an object. This cognitive faculty of rapid association was already attested in humans, but what about apes, our closest relatives? evolvinglanguage.ch/associating-...

Associating a sound with the object it refers to - NCCR Evolving Language

A team of researchers from the University of Neuchâtel studied the ability to associate a new sound with an object, amidst a noisy but familiar environment. This cognitive faculty of rapid association...

evolvinglanguage.ch

📢 Registrations are now open for the X-PPL Workshop 2025! Held by the @isle-uzh.bsky.social in Zurich on the 1st and 2nd of September.

Inst. for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution UZ@isle-uzh.bsky.social · last yr.

🎉 Registration is open for the Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing & Learning Workshop 2025! Join us in Zurich (01–02.09.) for keynotes by Sudha Arunachalam & Lars Meyer, plus other exciting talks & posters. Register: www.ema.uzh.ch/R7EPE #XPPL2025 #LanguageDiversity #CogSci #UZH

Very interesting @ecoevorxiv.bsky.social study by @sabinestoll.bsky.social @balthasarbickel.bsky.social & colleagues @nccrlanguage.bsky.social arguing that increased vocal accommodation (as a sign of homophily) facilitated the evolution of vocal production learning in the hominin lineage 🧪

🎉 Registration is open for the Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing & Learning Workshop 2025! Join us in Zurich (01–02.09.) for keynotes by Sudha Arunachalam & Lars Meyer, plus other exciting talks & posters. Register: www.ema.uzh.ch/R7EPE #XPPL2025 #LanguageDiversity #CogSci #UZH

Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning (X-PPL 2025)

September 1, 8:30 AM - September 2, 6:00 PM | University of Zurich, AFL building

ema.uzh.ch

Brilliant case of the @nccrlanguage.bsky.social spirit of team science. Congratulations on a major achievement!

Sabine Stoll@sabinestoll.bsky.social · last yr.

New paper by our @nccrlanguage.bsky.social team w @franziswegdell.bsky.social, @carolinefryns.bsky.social , J Schick , @zuberbuehler.bsky.social, C v Schaik, S Townsend, and myself. Child-directed communication is a driver of language evolution. shorturl.at/eAfjW

How do children learn to negate with diverse linguistic and cultural background? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The road to negation: A comparative study of five typologically and culturally diverse languages - Sakine Çabuk-Ballı, Aylin C Küntay, Paul Widmer, Sabine Stoll, 2025

The acquisition of negation is a key milestone in early language development that enables children to express rejection, non-existence, and deny propositions. I...

journals.sagepub.com

New paper on the role of peers in language acquisition: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...

Children Learn Best From Their Peers: The Crucial Role of Input From Other Children in Language Development

direct.mit.edu

Very happy to share a new preprint, written with people I have learned a lot from: Paola Cerrito, Carel van Schaik, Judith Burkart, Anne-Lise Giraud (@neurospeech.bsky.social), Daphne Baverlier, @balthasarbickel.bsky.social: how the communication system of neanderthals may have differed from ours 🧪🧵

Delighted to announce the publication of a collaborative effort, co-led by @limorraviv.bsky.social @mpi-nl.bsky.social, showcasing the ways in which researchers have made language evolution an empirical issue: A handbook of experimental approaches to the fascinating problem of language evolution 🧪

Submit an abstract 📝 on your work on cross-linguistic aspects of language processing and (first) language acquisition to ⭐️Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning (X-PPL) 2025⭐️ (Sept 1&2 @ U Zurich)! It’s a fantastic venue to present work on how ling diversity 🌏 & the mind/🧠 interact!

Inst. for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution UZ@isle-uzh.bsky.social · last yr.

📢 Join us at the Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning Workshop 2025 (Sept 1–2, University of #Zurich) to explore how language structure, processing, and learning interact across languages! Learn more: tinyurl.com/bdf5jhnb Deadline: May 31 @nccrlanguage.bsky.social

Happy to share a PhD opportunity in my new lab at the University of Zurich! Application deadline: June 30. Do not hesitate to contact me for any questions!

Sind Sie deutschsprachig mit wenigen Französischkenntnisse? Dann nehmen Sie an einer wissenschaftlichen Online-Studie über Sprache von @nocelab.bsky.social teil und helfen Sie dabei, den Einfluss der Sprache auf die Kognition zu verstehen.

📰 In the current issue of Open Mind @mitpress.bsky.social, you can find two #articles from NCCR members on #hominin #cognition and perception of events, and #language #acquisition in children 👇

Great to see this out! Congratulations to lead author Aitor Egurtzegi and the whole team!

Caroline Andrews@candrewsvl.bsky.social · last yr.

Our new paper on animacy effects in Basque comprehension is out! It's been fun shepherding this paper for the last couple years.  Congratulations to all the authors, but especially Aitor Ergurtzegi on publishing the last paper of his PhD! link.springer.com/article/10.3...

And yet another piece of evidence for the primate roots of human event role cognition! Congratulations to lead author @sarahbrocard.bsky.social

@sarahbrocard.bsky.social · last yr.

🧠🦍 Did you know? Like humans, chimpanzees automatically process 'who did what to whom' – a potential precursor for language. 👇 Check what we found in our new paper published in @openmindjournal.bsky.social doi.org/10.1162/opmi...

‼️ PhD opportunity: join a vibrant community working on language evolution @nccrlanguage.bsky.social @isle-uzh.bsky.social please spread widely www.isle.uzh.ch/en/jobs/phd-...

Our next ISLE Colloquium will be from Anna Graff (Uni Zurich), on "What population genetics can tell us about the impact of contact and isolation on structural linguistic diversity" Tues 29 April 4:15pm UZH Oerlikon, room AFL-F-121 www.isle.uzh.ch/en/staff/gra...

📢 Submissions are open for the Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning Workshop 2025! @isle-uzh.bsky.social

Inst. for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution UZ@isle-uzh.bsky.social · last yr.

📢 Join us at the Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning Workshop 2025 (Sept 1–2, University of #Zurich) to explore how language structure, processing, and learning interact across languages! Learn more: tinyurl.com/bdf5jhnb Deadline: May 31 @nccrlanguage.bsky.social

Paola Cerrito, who is starting her own Hominin Evolution Group at the University of Zürich, has just opened a great PhD position. Fantastic opportunity for someone interested in human life history evolution. I am lucky to collaborate with Paola. She is a terrific scholar @nccrlanguage.bsky.social

I'm hiring! 2 x PhDs and 1 x PostDoc, to work with me at Uni Zurich on a project investigating how semantic patterns differ by geographic region. Linguistic typology, data science, spatial analysis, phylogenetic methods, potential fieldwork... REPOST 🙏 www.comparativelinguistics.uzh.ch/en/jobs.html

We also wrote a lay article in @theconversation.com about our latest research on bonobo vocal communication! theconversation.com/bonobos-crea...

Bonobos create phrases in similar ways to humans, new study suggests

Human language is not as unique as we think.

theconversation.com

🚨New in @science.org🚨 With Simon Townsend (@nccrlanguage.bsky.social) and Martin Surbeck, we have investigated whether wild bonobos can combine calls in complex combinations, similar to how humans combine words into sentences 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #ScienceResearch #AnimalCommunication

Extensive compositionality in the vocal system of bonobos

Compositionality, the capacity to combine meaningful elements into larger meaningful structures, is a hallmark of human language. Compositionality can be trivial (the combination’s meaning is the sum ...

science.org