Slovotvir: Grassroots reform of the Ukrainian language reveals the role of drift and selection in language change
Alexey Koshevoy, Oleg Sobchuk, Olivier Morin, Mohammad Atari · 2026
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Description
Alexey Koshevoy, Oleg Sobchuk, Olivier Morin, and Mohammad Atari wrote this research paper, published in 2026. It uses a crowdsourced Ukrainian language platform to watch new words compete, and to test what makes a word catch on: blind copying or real preference.
On the platform Slovotvir, more than four thousand users spent nine years proposing and rating home-grown replacements for foreign words. The team modeled the votes with a simulation of copying agents. Shorter words did win an edge, matching the known pull toward least effort. But popular words did not snowball just because they were popular; likes looked largely independent of how common a word already was. The authors caution that the words tracked are still rare coinages. Even so, the study gives rare real-world evidence that brevity, not bandwagons, drives this corner of language change.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Alexey Koshevoy, Oleg Sobchuk, Olivier Morin, Mohammad Atari |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |