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文字体系の分子時計:帝国の力が文化進化に与える定量的影響
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- 世界中の文字体系300種類を対象に、5400年にわたる進化を数量的に解析するグローバルスクリプトデータベースを構築した。
- 文字体系の進化は、分子時計のように一定の速度で進むことが判明したが、政治的介入によってその速度が変化することが明らかになった。
- スペイン帝国と日本帝国が、接触した文字体系の消滅に最も大きな影響を与えたことが示された。
Abstract
Writing systems are cultural replicators whose evolution has never been studied quantitatively at global scale. We compile the Global Script Database (GSD): 300 writing and notation systems, 50 binary structural characters, and 259 phylogenetic edges spanning 5,400 years. Applying four methods -- phenetics, cladistics, Bayesian inference, and neural network clustering -- we find that scripts exhibit a detectable molecular clock. The best-fitting model (Mk+Gamma strict clock) yields a substitution rate of q = 0.226 substitutions/character/millennium (95% CI: 0.034-1.22; Delta BIC = -4.1 versus relaxed clock; Delta BIC = -1,364.7 versus Mk without rate variation). Political interventions break this clock: deviation from expected divergence times correlates with intervention intensity (Spearman rho = 0.556, p < 10^{-4}), and per-character rate analysis reveals that intervention selectively rewrites deep structural features rather than merely accelerating change (rate profile correlation rho = 0.320). We identify 30 major script replacement events and rank their destructive impact. A ceiling effect suppresses independent invention wherever writing already exists (Fisher's exact OR = 0.054, p < 10^{-6}), and colonial contact predicts script extinction (Cox HR = 5.25, p = 0.0006). The Spanish Empire extinguished the most scripts (6 of 12 contacted, 50%), followed by the Empire of Japan (3 of 9, 33.3%). Feature coding was validated by inter-rater reliability testing with two independent human coders (Cohen's kappa = 0.877; human-LLM kappa = 0.929; Fleiss' kappa = 0.911).
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