# Linguistic neighbourhoods: explaining cultural borders on Wikipedia through multilingual co-editing activity

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.04225 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.04225/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Mar 2016.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Cross-Lingual Citations in English Papers: A Large-Scale Analysis of Prevalence, Usage, and Impact](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.05097/) (2021)
- [Bridging Nations: Quantifying the Role of Multilinguals in Communication on Social Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03797/) (2023)
- [LaSER: Language-Specific Event Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04712/) (2023)
- [Convergence in Science, Divergence in Religion: Calibrated Framing Differences Across Wikipedia's Language Editions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21821/) (2026)
- [The Rashomon Wikipedia: A Data-Perspectivist Analysis of Divergent Historical Narratives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.37498/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we study the network of global interconnections between language communities, based on shared co-editing interests of Wikipedia editors, and show that although English is discussed as a potential lingua franca of the digital space, its domination disappears in the network of co-editing similarities, and instead local connections come to the forefront. Out of the hypotheses we explored, bilingualism, linguistic similarity of languages, and shared religion provide the best explanations for the similarity of interests between cultural communities. Population attraction and geographical proximity are also significant, but much weaker factors bringing communities together. In addition, we present an approach that allows for extracting significant cultural borders from editing activity of Wikipedia users, and comparing a set of hypotheses about the social mechanisms generating these borders. Our study sheds light on how culture is reflected in the collective process of archiving knowledge on Wikipedia, and demonstrates that cross-lingual interconnections on Wikipedia are not dominated by one powerful language. Our findings also raise some important policy questions for the Wikimedia Foundation.