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

Languages of the World: basic informationFounded in mid-1970s by Viktoria N. YartsevaMotive: fragmented character of individual language descriptions, due to:actual linguistic differencesvarious linguistic traditionspersonal preferencesGoal: produce commensurable descriptions of as many human languages as possibleFormat: encyclopediaLanguaqe: Russian

TemplateTool: typologically-oriented, uncommitted template, including information on:external aspects of language:historygeographysociolinguisticsdialects..........internal features:phonetics and phonologyformal morphologyrepresentation of semantic categoriessyntactic constructionslexicon

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

1.3.3. using in education

1.4.0. Writing type

1.5.0. Brief periodization of the history of the language

1.6.0. Linguistic phenomena likely conditioned by contacts with other languages

2.0.0. Grammar / Structure

2.1.0. Phonology

2.1.1. inventory of phonemes

2.1.2. prosody

2.1.3. positional realisation of phonemes and prosodemes

2.1.4. syllable structure; vocalic length and its phonological status

2.2.0. Morphonology

2.2.1. phonological structure of morpheme and/or word; correlation between syllable and morpheme

2.2.2. phonological oppositions dependent on morphological categories and status of morphological units

2.2.3. types of alternations

2.3.0. Grammatical semantics

2.3.1. parts of speech, criteria of their identification; means of expression of universal grammatical notions (general description)

2.3.2. qualitative nominal classifications

2.3.3. category of number

2.3.4. categories of case and possession

2.3.5. qualitative verbal classifications: aspect, mood, voice, modality, iteration, transitivity, versions

2.3.6. deictic categories: person (for noun and verb), definiteness (for noun), tense and taxis (in verb or in sentence), directives and locatives, anaphora, negation

2.3.7. semantic grammatical word classes

2.4.0. Sample paradigms

2.5.0. Morphosyntax

2.5.1. typical word structure (for languages rich in morphology); types of affixation; morphologically anomalous word classes

2.5.2. word-formation

2.5.3. simple clause (minimal utterance) structure; subject-object relations; syntactical positions; types of simple clause (minimal utterance)

2.5.4. complex / compound sentences: their types, word order

2.6.0. Lexical borrowings

Bibliography

III. Article on a dialect

1. name

2. position in the group of dialects: its position in relation to the literary/standard language; linguistic particularities

3. geographic spread; if possible, number of speakers

4. functional status

IV. Article on a language not exceeding 20,000 characters

1.0. name

2.0. geographic spread; for extinct languages time of existence

3.0. affilation (position in genealogical classification)

4.0. written sources; type of writing

5.0.0. Linguistic characteristics

5.1.0. Phonology (including the information about accent, tones, etc.)

5.1.1. syllable

5.1.2. syllable

5.1.3. types of alternations

5.2.0. Morphology

5.2.1. morphological type of the language (agglutinative, inflectional, etc.)

5.2.2. morphological categories, their inventory, character, means of expression

5.2.3. main types of word formation

5.3.0. Syntax

5.3.1. structure and types of simple sentence (or its equivalent)

5.3.2. types of comound sentence

5.4. Genetic and areal characteristics of the vocabulary

6.0.Dialects

Bibliography

Properties of the templatePositivevery generaleasily applicable to any languageflexibleallows to fit in as much useful info as possibleeasy to usenumbered positions allow for efficient cross-referencingNegativesomewhat outdated (developed in the 1970s)some overlap between positionsThere is no other choice than keep going with the template, as long as we are able to

1990s to nowSwitch from the encyclopedia format to individual volumes on language groupsSince 1993 17 volumes on genealogical and areal language groupingsOne megaproject is split into a large number of much more graspable and managable individual projectsBeginning from 2000s we integrate international colleagues and collect some articles in English

c o v e r e d s o f a r

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

ManagementEditorial group Languages of the WorldConstituent of the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences6 coworkers in the groupEach project is managed by:Supervisor from the group LWGenealogical editor(s)Group of authors

Not yet published projectsI. Near completionII. In the makingIII. Incipient stageIV. Projected

I. Near completion18. Semitic II: Ethio-Semitic19. Relict Indoeuropean languages of western and central Asia20. Dravidian21. Relict non-Indoeuropean languages of Europe

II. In the making22. Austroasiatic and Andamanese23. Mande

III. Incipient stage24. Relict Indoeuropean languages of Europe25. Sino-Tibetan

IV. Projected26. Tai-Kadai27. Miao-Yao

c o v e r e d s o f a r18192021222324252627

In toto10 forthcoming volumes or more?

ApplicationsReference toolEducational instrumentTool for quantitative research

Database Languages of the World (Jazyki mira)Based on the encyclopediaInitiated in the 1980sSignificantly advanced in the 2000sVladimir Polyakov and Valery Solovyev

Features, JMp. 41

The databasehttp://www.dblang.ru/en/Default.aspxAbout 350 languages, mostly EurasiaRelatively complete coverage of languagesHierarchically organized features3800 binary featuresOver 1 million data points

Applications of the DB Jazyki miratypological studiesareal-typological studiesgenealogical classifications of less-studied familiesshift from purely lexical basis for classification to the inclusion of grammatical propertiescontribution of areal and genealogical factorsdiachronic studies: language evolution and language prehistory

DB Jazyki mira and WALSPolyakov V., Solovyev V., Wichmann S., Belyaev O. Using WALS and Jazyki mira. Linguistic Typology. V. 13. 2009. P. 135165.

Phylogenetic tree, WALS

(Solovyev 2011)

Phylogenetic tree, JM

Language mapsAuthored by Yuri Koryakovhttp://lingvarium.org/maps.shtml Each volume is accompanied by a series of maps

Language maps vs. Linguistic mapsLanguage 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 ( .. )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 areaswithin one language (e.g. on dialectological maps) in one region (e.g. 19652011, Atlas Linguarum Europae 19752002) world-wide (WALS 2005/2008)

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

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

Applications of language mapsThey serve as a visualization accompanying language descriptionParticularly useful in the studies in linguistic geography, areal typology, dialectologyThe very process of mapping encourages linguists to pay close attention to many specific aspects of language description

Visual illustrations for language descriptionsSource: Authier G. Grammaire kryz (Langue caucasique d'Azerbadjan, dialecte d'Alik). Paris: Peeters, 2009.Languages of Eastern CaucasusReduction of the Vodic territory in the 20th centurySource: .. . Mitteilungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica 26. , 2007

Production of this map provoked the editors of the Indo-Aryan volume to substantially correct and expand linguo-geographical informationSource: : . .: Academia, 2011.

Phenomena resistent to mapping: multilingualism, social / age-related / community-related distribution of speakers, decay of languages/dialectsComplex linguistic situation in Istria and adjacent areasSource: Atlas of Romance languages. Moscow, 2001.Gradual decay of French dialects

Maps may be combined with other representations, e.g. classification schemesSource: Atlas of Romance languages. Moscow, 2001

Creation of language mapsWhen creating language maps, a variety of sources is used, including textual and cartographicThere are several techniques used in the creation of language maps

Maps may rely on census data, on the community-by-community basis, subsequently generalized Linguistic profiles of individual communitiesAreas are generalized from communitiesMaps for the forthcoming publication: ..

Generalization accompanying scaling-downSources: .. . ., 2006; .. - . ., 2005.

Use of isoglottic maps for the identification of dialect boundariesIsoglottic mapDialect mapSource: . 2006. Isogloss data from: Herzog, Marvin, et al. ed., YIVO, The Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry, 3 vols., Tbingen, 19922000.

Historical language mapsStage 1: Historic baseStage 2: Locations of findsStage 3: Language boundariesSource: : . . . ., Academia, 2009.

Our latest publicationNew Indo-Aryan languages. Ed. by Tatiana I. Oranskaia, Julia V. Mazurova, Andrej A. Kibrik, Leonid I. Kulikov, Aleksandr Y. Rusakov.896 pp.

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