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Some parallels between biological and linguistic evolution

Biological evolutionLanguage evolution
Discrete heritable units (for example, nucleotides, amino acids and genes)Discrete heritable units (for example, words, phonemes and syntax)
DNA copyingTeaching, learning and imitation
Mutation (for example, many mechanisms yielding genetic alterations)Innovation (for example, formant variation, mistakes, sound changes, and introduced sounds and words)
HomologyCognates
Natural selectionSocial selection and trends
DriftDrift
SpeciationLanguage or cultural splitting
Concerted evolutionRegular sound change
Horizontal gene transferBorrowing
Hybridization (for example, horse with zebra and wheat with strawberry)Language Creoles (for example, Surinamese)
Geographic clinesDialects and dialect chains
FossilsAncient texts
ExtinctionLanguage death