“LANGUAGES of the WORLD”(Jazyki mira):

A longitudinal project

Andrej A. KibrikYuri B. Koryakov

(Institute of Linguistics, RAN)aakibrik@gmail.com

Paris, February 29, 2012

2

“Languages of the World”: basic information

Founded in mid-1970s by Viktoria N. Yartseva

Motive: fragmented character of individual language descriptions, due to: actual linguistic differences various linguistic traditions personal preferences

Goal: produce commensurable descriptions of as many human languages as possible

Format: encyclopedia Languaqe: Russian

3

Template

Tool: typologically-oriented, uncommitted template, including information on: external aspects of language:

• history• geography• sociolinguistics• dialects• ..........

internal features:• phonetics and phonology• formal morphology• representation of semantic categories• syntactic constructions• lexicon

4

Template

Standard typologically-oriented templates

I. Article on language family or group of dialects a.. Name b.. geographic spread and composition c.. Approximate number of speakers d.. Principles of genetic classification and its variants e.. Chronology of divergence (for higher level families) f.. Typical phonetic and grammatical features Bibliography II. Article on a language 1.1.0. Background information 1.1.1. alternative names 1.1.2. affilation (position in genealogical classification) 1.1.3. geographic spread; number of speakers 1.2.0. Linguo-geographical information 1.2.1. principal dialects 1.3.0. Socio-linguistic situation 1.3.1. communicative and functional status of the language 1.3.2. level of standartization

5

Properties of the template

Positive very general

• easily applicable to any language flexible

• allows to fit in as much useful info as possible easy to use

• numbered positions allow for efficient cross-referencing

Negative somewhat outdated (developed in the 1970s) some overlap between positions

There is no other choice than keep going with the template, as long as we are able to

6

1990s to now

Switch from the encyclopedia format to individual volumes on language groups

Since 1993 – 17 volumes on genealogical and areal language groupings

One megaproject is split into a large number of much more graspable and managable individual projects

Beginning from 2000s we integrate international colleagues and collect some articles in English

7

c o v e r e d s o f

a r

8

17 published volumes

Uralic 1993 Turkic 1997 Mongolic, Tungusic, Japanese, and Korean 1997 Paleoasiatic 1997 South-western Iranian 1997 North-western Iranian 1999 Eastern Iranian 1999 Dardic and Nuristani 1999 Caucasian 1999 Germanic and Celtic 2000 Romance 2001 Old and Middle Indo-Aryan 2004 Slavic 2005 Baltic 2006 Semitic I Relict non-Indoeuropean languages of Near East New Indo-Aryan languages

9

Management

Editorial group “Languages of the World”Constituent of the Institute of Linguistics,

Russian Academy of Sciences 6 coworkers in the group Each project is managed by:

Supervisor from the group “LW” “Genealogical editor(s)” Group of authors

10

Not yet published projects

I. Near completion II. In the making III. Incipient stage IV. Projected

11

I. Near completion

18. Semitic II: Ethio-Semitic19. Relict Indoeuropean languages of

western and central Asia20. Dravidian21. Relict non-Indoeuropean

languages of Europe

12

II. In the making

22. Austroasiatic and Andamanese23. Mande

13

III. Incipient stage

24. Relict Indoeuropean languages of Europe

25. Sino-Tibetan

14

IV. Projected

26. Tai-Kadai27. Miao-Yao

15

c o v e r e d s o f

a r

18

19

20

21

2223

2425

2627

16

In toto

10 forthcoming volumes or more?

17

Applications

Reference tool Educational instrument Tool for quantitative research

18

Database “Languages of the World” (Jazyki mira) Based on the encyclopedia Initiated in the 1980s Significantly advanced in the 2000s Vladimir Polyakov and Valery Solovyev

19

Features, JM

p. 41

20

The database

http://www.dblang.ru/en/Default.aspx

About 350 languages, mostly EurasiaRelatively complete coverage of

languagesHierarchically organized features 3800 binary featuresOver 1 million data points

21

Applications of the DB “Jazyki mira”

typological studies areal-typological studies genealogical classifications of less-studied

families shift from purely lexical basis for classification

to the inclusion of grammatical properties

contribution of areal and genealogical factors

diachronic studies: language evolution and language prehistory

22

DB “Jazyki mira” and WALS

Polyakov V., Solovyev V., Wichmann S., Belyaev O. Using WALS and Jazyki mira. Linguistic Typology. V. 13. 2009. P. 135–165.

23

Phylogenetic tree, WALS

(Solovyev 2011)

Hebrew Modern Persian

Nenets Itelmen

Chukchi Lezgian

Abkhaz Kabardian

Burushaski Bengali

Chechen Georgian

Ket Khanty

Selkup Uzbek

Tatar Bashkir

Chuvash Azerbaijani

Kirghiz Hungarian

Finnish Ukrainian

Icelandic Russian Polish

Czech Komi Zyrian

Bulgarian Breton Danish

Sw edish Dutch

French Portugese

Italian Catalan

0.05

24

Phylogenetic tree, JM

Ukrainian Czech

Russian Polish

Bulgarian Burushaski Kabardian

Hebrew Modern Bengali

Itelmen Abkhaz

Chukchi Ket

Georgian Khanty Komi Zyrian

Hungarian Finnish

Selkup Nenets

Chechen Tatar Chuvash

Uzbek Azerbaijani

Bashkir Kirghiz Lezgian Persian Breton

Italian Catalan

Dutch Portuguese French Icelandic

Danish Sw edish

0.05

25

Language maps

Authored by Yuri Koryakov

http://lingvarium.org/maps.shtml

Each volume is accompanied by a series of maps

26

Language maps vs. Linguistic maps

Language maps demonstrate the spread of languages, or of their dialects, unified by:

common territory (Language Atlas of China. S. A. Wurm et al. (eds). 1987)

common genealogical affiliation (Коряков Ю.Б. Атлас кавказских языков)

another common characteristic (Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, 1996).

Linguistic maps demonstrate the spread of linguistic phenomena, by means of dots, isoglosses, or areas

within one language (e.g. on dialectological maps)

in one region (e.g. Общеславянский лингвистический атлас 1965–2011, Atlas Linguarum Europae 1975–2002)

world-wide (WALS 2005/2008)

27

Some language maps are quite general, such as this map of Tibeto-Burman

28

While some are very focused, such as this map of Jewish-Aramaic languages

29

Applications of language maps

They serve as a visualization accompanying language description

Particularly useful in the studies in linguistic geography, areal typology, dialectology

The very process of mapping encourages linguists to pay close attention to many specific aspects of language description

30

Visual illustrations for language descriptions

Source: Authier G. Grammaire kryz (Langue caucasique d'Azerbaïdjan, dialecte d'Alik). Paris: Peeters, 2009.

Languages of Eastern Caucasus Reduction of the Vodic territory in the 20th century

Source: Агранат Т.Б. Западный диалект водского языка. Mitteilungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica 26. Москва – Гронинген, 2007

31

Production of this map provoked the editors of the Indo-Aryan volume to substantially correct and expand linguo-geographical information

Source: Языки мира: Новые индоарийские языки. ― М.: Academia, 2011.

32

Phenomena resistent to mapping: multilingualism, social / age-related / community-related distribution of speakers, decay of languages/dialects

Complex linguistic situation in Istria and adjacent areas

Source: Atlas of Romance languages. Moscow, 2001.

Gradual decay of French dialects

33

Maps may be combined with other representations, e.g. classification schemes

Source: Atlas of Romance languages. Moscow, 2001

34

Creation of language maps

When creating language maps, a variety of sources is used, including textual and cartographic

There are several techniques used in the creation of language maps

35

Maps may rely on census data, on the community-by-community basis, subsequently generalized

Linguistic profiles of individual communities Areas are generalized from communities

Maps for the forthcoming publication: Коряков Ю.Б. Атлас языков России

36

Generalization accompanying scaling-down

Sources: Коряков Ю.Б. Атлас кавказских языков. М., 2006; Бурлак С.А. Сравнительно-историческое языкознание. М., 2005.

37

Use of isoglottic maps for the identification of dialect boundaries

Isoglottic map

Dialect map

Source: Ежегодный альманах еврейской музыкальной культуры «Музыка идишкайта». 2006. Isogloss data from: Herzog, Marvin, et al. ed., YIVO, The Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, 3 vols., Tübingen, 1992–2000.

38

Historical language maps

Stage 1: Historic “base”

Stage 2: Locations of finds

Stage 3: Language boundaries

Source: Языки мира: Семитские языки. Аккадский язык. Северозападносемитские языки. М., «Academia», 2009.

39

Our latest publication

New Indo-Aryan languages. Ed. by Tatiana I. Oranskaia, Julia V. Mazurova, Andrej A. Kibrik, Leonid I. Kulikov, Aleksandr Y. Rusakov.

896 pp.