Simon J. Greenhill

@simongreenhill.bsky.social

1.8K followers 920 following 560 posts

I study how languages and cultures evolve. Primarily with phylogenies and other assorted computational methods. Based at @Biology_UoA. Never met a language phylogeny or a cultural phylogeny I didn't like. #phylolinguistics .. more

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Simon James Greenhill is a New Zealand scientist who works on the application of quantitative methods to the study of cultural evolution and human prehistory. He is well known for creating and building various linguistics databases, including the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, TransNewGuinea.org, Pulotu, and many others. In addition to Austronesian, he has contributed to the study of the phylogeny of many language families, including Dravidian and Sino-Tibetan. .. more

Computer science 19%

Communication & Media Studies 19%

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Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

HiPhiLangSci @hiphilangsci.bsky.social · 5h

Happy World Linguistics Day 🎉

Not Saussure how to celebrate? Episodes 12 and 13 of our podcast will give your plans some structure...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/02/01/p...

🎙️ hiphilangsci.net/2021/03/01/p...

#LinguisticBirthdays #LinguisticQuotes #Histlx #WorldLinguisticsDay

"Dans la langue, il n'y a que des différences sans termes positifs [=In a language, there are only differences and no positive terms.]" (Ferdinand de Saussure: Cours de linnguistique générale, p. 166)

Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 6h

Fun #linguistic fact for World Linguistics Day:

If North America had the same linguistic diversity as New Guinea we’d expect Indigenous Americans to speak ~28,000 languages.

Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 7h

I'm wondering about the network dynamics here. Twitter has a massively skewed scale-free network (i.e. few accounts with MASSIVE followers, and many people with few followers). Here the distribution seems to be flatter. This means info flow is slower and more local

Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe, Lisa W. Fazio, Gavin A. Schmidt , and 9 more Katharine Hayhoe, Lisa W. Fazio, Gavin A. Schmidt, Thomas Backhaus, Simon J. Greenhill, Fabián Muniesa, Smith, Alan Richardson, Silvia Secchi, Dana R. Fisher, Larry W. Hunter, Peter Jacobs

Virginia Gewin @virginiagewin.bsky.social · 14h

Scientists: have you been the target of an online harassment campaign, doxxing, or weaponized FOIA requests? I'd like to talk to you about steps you had to take to protect your digital security for an upcoming Nature story. (You can be anonymous if necessary.)

RTs appreciated.

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, Shannon Vallor, Lisa W. Fazio , and 2 more Timnit Gebru, Shannon Vallor, Lisa W. Fazio, Simon J. Greenhill, Gerry Canavan

Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 14h

Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Marta Mìrazón Lahr

David Gokhman @david-gokhman.bsky.social · 2d

Such a fantastic resource by @kuhlwilm.bsky.social's lab. We’re using this catalog in half our projects
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A curated dataset of great ape genome diversity - Scientific Data

Scientific Data - A curated dataset of great ape genome diversity

www.nature.com

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Structural Phylogenetics (StrPhy) @strphy.bsky.social · 2d

Registration for #APSPM2026 closes soon.

Everyone’s welcome! whether you study evolution, structure, or computational methods, join us in Brisbane (and online) Feb 16–18, 2026 to learn how protein structure meets phylogenetics.
biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/strphy26

@official-smbe.bsky.social

Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 3d

lowie is rather unfairly forgotten I think. Primitive Civilization is a milestone book

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Andrew Garrett @andrewgarrett.bsky.social · 3d

Alfred Kroeber (d. 1960), w/ colleagues who predeceased him, Robert Lowie (d. 1957) & Paul Radin (d. 1959), & their wives Luella Lowie (d. 1970) & Doris Radin (d. 1991). Three German-Austrian-Polish-American students of Boas, once colleagues and now neighbors. Sunset View Cemetery, El Cerrito, CA.

Andrew Garrett sitting next to headstone of Alfred L. Kroeber, 1876-1960.

Headstones for Alfred L. Kroeber, 1876-1960; Robert H. Lowie, 1883-1957; and Luella Cole Lowie, 1893-1970.

Headstones for Paul Radin, 1883-1959; Doris Woodward Radin, 1901-1991; Robert H. Lowie, 1883-1957; and Luella Cole Lowie, 1893-1970.

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 5d

What enables human language? A biocultural framework. New paper by Inbal Arnon & al. with @limorraviv.bsky.social , @profsimonfisher.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1126/science.adq8303

What enables human language? A biocultural framework

Explaining the origins of language is a key challenge in understanding ourselves as a species. We present an empirical framework that draws on synergies across fields to facilitate robust studies of l...

doi.org

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Laura Spinney @laurainparis.bsky.social · 5d

It's Black Friday and books are going cheap... 🤗
shorturl.at/uEJdj

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Lingthusiasm @lingthusiasm.bsky.social · 5d

How are we still making discoveries about the 5000-year-old ancestor to English, Latin, Czech, Hindi and many other languages?

In our latest episode we get enthusiastic about figuring out Proto-Indo-European with @dannybate.bsky.social!

110: The history of the history of Indo-European - Interview with Danny Bate

Before there was English, or Latin, or Czech, or Hindi, there was a language that they all have in common, which we call Proto-Indo-European. Linguists have long been fascinated by the quest to get a

soundcloud.com

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 5d

You really have to wonder what training data they force-fed into that poor AI to make it think those things.

Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 6d

"we ... employ Bayesian phylogenetic methods to reconstruct the evolutionary history of kissing."

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A comparative approach to the evolution of kissing

Kissing can be observed across the animal kingdom. This presents an evolutionary puzzle, since the fitness benefits of kissing are unclear. We use a n…

www.sciencedirect.com

Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 6d

The "natural key vs surrogate key" debate :)

Reposted by Winnifred R. Louis, Simon J. Greenhill, Martin Tomko , and 2 more Winnifred R. Louis, Simon J. Greenhill, Martin Tomko, Naomi Priest, Catherine J. Frieman

3wombats @3wombats.bsky.social · 7d

Please sign. This stupid decision needs reversing

actionnetwork.org/petitions/cs...

CSIRO needs urgent support

CSIRO is under attack. Sign the petition calling on the Albanese Government to act now to secure the future of CSIRO’s world-leading science and research.

actionnetwork.org

Reposted by Louis Moresi, Simon J. Greenhill

Private Eye Magazine @privateeyenews.bsky.social · 8d

Do you rely on others for support?

From the new Private Eye, out now.

Reposted by Mark Lubell, Simon J. Greenhill, Naomi Priest

Michael Mazengarb @michaelmazengarb.bsky.social · 8d

That's more than 1,100 jobs lost at the CSIRO over the last two years.

"Combined, the staff association estimates that equates to cutting the agency’s size by a third."

This is more cuts to the CSIRO than was attempted by the Abbott government.

www.smh.com.au/national/csi...

CSIRO to slash hundreds of jobs in cost-saving drive

The staff association at the nation’s leading scientific research organisation says the latest round of cuts marks “a sad day for publicly funded science”.

www.smh.com.au

Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 8d

Congratulations, Dr. Turner. Don't let them ruin the joy at your achievement.

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · 8d

New study using the #GramBank database finds that about 1/3 of 191 proposed grammatical universals hold across languages @verkerk.bsky.social
#linguistics #universals #typology #Bayesian

Enduring constraints on grammar revealed by Bayesian spatiophylogenetic analyses - Nature Human Behaviour

Despite their great diversity, human languages are shaped by recurring grammatical universals. Verkerk et al. show that about one-third of the proposed universals hold cross-linguistically through analyses of the Grambank database.

www.nature.com

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Nathan Nunn, Rebecca Sear

Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre @durhamdcerc.bsky.social · 8d

Abstract submission for CES 2026 in Rabat has been extended to 30th November! @ces2026.bsky.social

Cultural Evolution Society @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social · 10d

The deadline has been extended - there is still time to get your abstracts in to join us in Morocco!

Zach Garfield @zhgarfield.com · 10d

The submission deadline for #CESRabat has been extended to 30 November

@ces2026.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill, Olivier Morin

laserhedvig.bsky.social @laserhedvig.bsky.social · 8d

Today, we published a paper on the strength of language universals (if language has X, it also has Y) given spatial & phylogenetic autocorrelation in @nathumbehav.nature.com ! It is a cool research project, led by the brilliant Annemarie Verkerk at @uni-saarland.de
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Enduring constraints on grammar revealed by Bayesian spatiophylogenetic analyses - Nature Human Behaviour

www.nature.com

Reposted by Simon J. Greenhill

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 9d

📢 SMBE Call for 2028 Regional Meetings

The SMBE will financially support up to five meetings, ideally one per major region (N. America, Central/South America, Europe, Africa, Asia/Oceania)

📝 Submit proposal
smbe.org/guidelines

🗓️ Important dates
Submission: March 15, 2026
Decision: mid-June 2026