  Competition between languages or cultural traits diffusing in the same
geographical area is studied combining the language competition model of Abrams
and Strogatz and a human dispersal model on an inhomogeneous substrate. Also,
the effect of population growth is discussed. It is shown through numerical
experiments that the final configuration of the surviving language can be
strongly affected by geographical and historical factors. These factors are not
related to the dynamics of culture transmission, but rather to initial
population distributions as well as geographical boundaries and
inhomogeneities, which modulate the diffusion process.
