[1][2] The theory was intended as a substitute for the tree model, which did not seem to be able to explain the existence of some features, especially in the Germanic languages, by descent from a proto-language.
[2][3] The tree model requires languages to evolve exclusively through social splitting and linguistic divergence.
Such a requirement is absent from the Wave Model, which can easily accommodate a distribution of innovations in intersected patterns.
It evolves by subterranean stems and flows, along river valleys or train tracks; it spreads like a patch of oil."
Despite these similarities, it is unclear whether Deleuze and Guattari were explicitly aware of the wave model during the production of A Thousand Plateaus.
Diagram based on the Wave model originally presented by Johannes Schmidt. In this
Euler diagram
, the circles are to be regarded as diachronic; that is, they increase in diameter over time, like the concentric waves on a water surface struck by a stone. The background represents a
dialect continuum
of no language boundaries. The circles are stable dialects, characters or bundles of characters that have been innovated and have become more stable over an originally small portion of the continuum for socio-political reasons. These circles spread from their small centers of maximum effectiveness like waves, becoming less effective
[
clarification needed
]
and then dissipating at maximum time and distance from the center. Languages are to be regarded as impermanent sets of speech habits that result from and prevail in the intersections of the circles. The most conservative language is represented by the area not covered by the circles.
