Interlinguistic similarity and language death dynamics

We analyze the time evolution of a system of two coexisting languages (Castillian Spanish and Galician, both spoken in northwest Spain) in the framework of a model given by Abrams and Strogatz ( Nature 424 (2003) 900). It is shown that, contrary to the model's initial prediction, a stable bilingual situation is possible if the languages in competition are similar enough. Similarity is described with a simple parameter, whose value can be estimated from fits of the data.