Balthasar Bickel
@balthasarbickel.bsky.social
Director, NCCR Evolving Language (www.evolvinglanguage.ch) and Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Zürich, Switzerland
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
📰 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...
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
June 11, 2026 at 9:06 AM
📰 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...
evolvinglanguage.ch/the-universa...
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
💬 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...
🔗 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
May 5, 2026 at 9:17 AM
💬 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...
🔗 evolvinglanguage.ch/isolated-hum...
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!
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
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
An inverse correlation between structural linguistic and human genetic diversity | PNAS
Linguistic structures show uneven global distributions, but it remains unknown to
what extent such distributions are driven by human population his...
www.pnas.org
May 3, 2026 at 11:44 AM
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!
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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...
Apply before May 26th! Full details here: jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...
Professeur-e Assistant-e avec pré-titularisation conditionnelle ou Associé (6846)
en neurosciences computationnelles / Assistant Professor with Tenure Track or Associate Professor in computational neuroscience
jobs.unige.ch
April 13, 2026 at 11:20 AM
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...
Apply before May 26th! Full details here: jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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...
www.isle.uzh.ch/en/jobs/post...
Postdoctoral Researchers (x2) in Cognitive Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics
www.isle.uzh.ch
March 25, 2026 at 7:56 PM
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...
www.isle.uzh.ch/en/jobs/post...
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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.
@balthasarbickel.bsky.social @kkshimizu1.bsky.social Damián E. Blasi, Erik J. Ringen, Vladimir Bajić, Daphné Bavelier, and Brigitte Pakendorf.
August 29, 2025 at 7:45 PM
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.
@balthasarbickel.bsky.social @kkshimizu1.bsky.social Damián E. Blasi, Erik J. Ringen, Vladimir Bajić, Daphné Bavelier, and Brigitte Pakendorf.
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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
@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.
www.science.org
August 30, 2025 at 8:53 AM
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
@balthasarbickel.bsky.social @chiarabarbieri.bsky.social @nccrlanguage.bsky.social @isle-uzh.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv7521
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
UZH: Statistician
Within the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language and its 46 different research groups from a large variety of disciplines across Switzerland, and the University of Zurich ...
tinyurl.com
July 18, 2025 at 12:06 PM
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
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
📰 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-...
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
July 15, 2025 at 8:24 AM
📰 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-...
evolvinglanguage.ch/associating-...
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
📢 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.
Held by the @isle-uzh.bsky.social in Zurich on the 1st and 2nd of September.
🎉 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
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
www.ema.uzh.ch
July 3, 2025 at 1:09 PM
📢 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.
Held by the @isle-uzh.bsky.social in Zurich on the 1st and 2nd of September.
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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 🧪
of vocal production learning in the hominin lineage 🧪
From vocal homophily to vocal repertoire flexibility: Unravelling the socioecological drivers of language evolution
ecoevorxiv.org
June 23, 2025 at 9:18 AM
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 🧪
of vocal production learning in the hominin lineage 🧪
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
🎉 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
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
www.ema.uzh.ch
July 3, 2025 at 11:14 AM
🎉 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
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
Brilliant case of the @nccrlanguage.bsky.social spirit of team science. Congratulations on a major achievement!
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
shorturl.at/eAfjW
June 26, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Brilliant case of the @nccrlanguage.bsky.social spirit of team science. Congratulations on a major achievement!
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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
June 20, 2025 at 5:23 AM
How do children learn to negate with diverse linguistic and cultural background? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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
June 20, 2025 at 5:17 AM
New paper on the role of peers in language acquisition: direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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
🧪🧵
🧪🧵
Pleistocene origins of cultural and linguistic diversification: how Homo sapiens and Neanderthals differed
ecoevorxiv.org
June 2, 2025 at 6:12 AM
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
🧪🧵
🧪🧵
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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 🧪
May 27, 2025 at 5:56 AM
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 🧪
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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!
📢 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
Learn more: tinyurl.com/bdf5jhnb
Deadline: May 31
@nccrlanguage.bsky.social
The LINGUIST List
The LINGUIST List, International Linguistics Community Online.
tinyurl.com
May 21, 2025 at 8:27 AM
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!
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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!
May 20, 2025 at 12:19 PM
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!
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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.
March 12, 2025 at 8:46 AM
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.
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
📰 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 👇
May 14, 2025 at 6:53 AM
📰 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!
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...
The effect of animacy on the agent preference: Self-paced reading evidence from Basque - Memory & Cognition
Language processing shows a tendency to prefer agents over other roles. For instance, when initial unmarked noun phrases (NPs) are ambiguous between agent and patient roles, there is a preference to i...
link.springer.com
May 20, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Great to see this out! Congratulations to lead author Aitor Egurtzegi and the whole team!
And yet another piece of evidence for the primate roots of human event role cognition! Congratulations to lead author @sarahbrocard.bsky.social
🧠🦍 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...
👇 Check what we found in our new paper published in @openmindjournal.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1162/opmi...
Spontaneous Encoding of Event Roles in Hominids
ABSTRACT. When observing social interactions, humans rapidly and spontaneously encode events in terms of agents, patients and causal relations. This propensity can be made visible empirically with the...
doi.org
May 20, 2025 at 5:59 AM
And yet another piece of evidence for the primate roots of human event role cognition! Congratulations to lead author @sarahbrocard.bsky.social
‼️ 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-...
www.isle.uzh.ch
May 20, 2025 at 5:55 AM
‼️ 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-...
Reposted by Balthasar Bickel
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...
Tues 29 April 4:15pm
UZH Oerlikon, room AFL-F-121
www.isle.uzh.ch/en/staff/gra...
April 28, 2025 at 10:45 AM
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...
Tues 29 April 4:15pm
UZH Oerlikon, room AFL-F-121
www.isle.uzh.ch/en/staff/gra...