Setting stars: disappearing systems of spatial reference in Dhivehi...
Transcript of Setting stars: disappearing systems of spatial reference in Dhivehi...
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Outline
1 Dhivehi and the Maldives
2 The Dhivehi sidereal compass
3 Topographic terms
4 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in circular configurations
5 Summary and conclusions
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1 Dhivehi and the Maldives
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1.1 Dhivehi: language profile Official language of the Maldives
Approx. 340 000 speakers, mostly
in the Maldives
Indo-Aryan
Several dialects
1.2 Topography of the Maldives
Indian Ocean archipelago of ~1200 islands in 26 atolls.
Atoll: ring-shaped coral reef encircling a lagoon, often with islands
around the perimeter
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1.2 Topography of the Maldives
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Gan, Laamu Atoll:
Presentation title
LAGOON
OCEAN
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1.2 Topography of the Maldives
Less than 1% of the country’s territory is land.
Average elevation is 1.5m; villages built at much lower elevations
(Woodroffe 2008), and so are susceptible to rising sea levels.
LANGUAGE
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1.3 Shifting sands
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 70 people and caused extensive
damage and displacement:
– Some small (uninhabited) islands destroyed while others emerged
from the sea.
– Entire communities evacuated and not permitted to resettle their
home islands (e.g. Kalhaidhoo, Laamu Atoll).
– Topography of certain islands altered, e.g. flattening out of
oceanward ridge on Fonadhoo, Laamu Atoll.
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1.3 Shifting sands
The Maldives is also experiencing sweeping social changes, largely
due to globalization. Traditional cultural and linguistic practices are
under threat from:
– Rise of bilingualism through increased contact with English (via
schooling, technology, tourism, and travel abroad).
– Introduction of new technology.
– Arabization and a shift to conservative, Wahhabi interpretation of
Islam.
– Population growth and related government policy, which has led
to overcrowding and massive internal migration to the highly
urbanized capital, Malé.
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2 The Dhivehi sidereal
compass
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2.1 Sidereal compasses
A sidereal or star compass is a system of compass points based on
the rising and setting points of stars or small constellations (asterisms).
Cf. solar compass, wind compass.
Up to 32 distinct points around the compass.
Useful for long distance ocean navigation, but also in desert
environments.
Examples: Caroline Islanders (Pacific), Hawaiian, Chinese, Arab.
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2.1 Sidereal compasses
In some sidereal compasses, directions point to actual locations of
rising and setting stars – e.g. Carolinian compass (Goodenough 1953;
Halpern 1986).
In others, directions are abstracted away from actual rising and setting
points, so that points are evenly distributed around the compass. (The
Dhivehi sidereal compass is of this kind.)
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2.2 Dhivehi solar compass
Dhivehi has both a solar compass and a sidereal compass.
The solar compass has four main terms, which can be compounded to
form eight (inter-)cardinal directions:
uturu ‘north’ and dekunu ‘south’ have cognates in many IA languages;
iru(mati) ‘east’ and huḷangu ‘west’ are 17th century innovations, from
terms for the sun and (monsoon) wind respectively.
uturu
iru(mati)
dekunu
huḷangu
iru-uturu
iru-dekunu
huḷangu-uturu
huḷangu-dekunu
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2.3 The Dhivehi sidereal compass
32 points, each 11.25° apart.
Separate from solar compass – no
overlap in direction names.
Terms for directions are
duplicated on each half of the
compass (eastern and western
sides).
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2.3 The Dhivehi sidereal compass
Two additional terms, īrān(u)
‘rising’ and astamān(u) ‘setting’
specify whether the bearing falls
on the eastern or western side of
the compass. e.g.:
– farugadi īrān(u) ‘Ursa Minor
rising’ (N by E)
– farugadi astamān(u) ‘Ursa
Minor setting’ (N by W)
Eastern or western sides may be
left unspecified, if obvious from
context.
gahā ‘Polaris’ (North) and suhailu
‘Pole of Canopus’ (South) are
neither rising nor setting.
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2.3 The Dhivehi sidereal compass Dhivehi name Star or constellation Bearing
gahā Polaris (Pole Star) North
farugadi īrānu/astamānu Ursa Minor rising/setting N by E / N by W
nāsi īrānu/astamānu Ursa Major rising/setting NNE / NNW
nāgā īrānu/astamānu Cassiopeia rising/setting NE by N / NW by N
ayyugu īrānu/astamānu Capella rising/setting NE / NW
gāsilu īrānu/astamānu Vega rising/setting NE by E / NW by W
simāgu īranu/astamānu Arcturus rising/setting ENE / WNW
turiyyānu īrānu/astamānu Pleiades rising/setting E by N / W by N
muringu īrānu/astamānu Altair rising/setting East / West
jauzā īrānu/astamānu Orion’s Belt rising/setting E by S / W by S
tīru īrānu/astamānu Sirius rising/setting ESE / WSW
agurabu īrānu/astamānu Scorpio rising/setting SE by E / SW by S
galbu īrānu/astamānu Antares rising/setting SE / SW
himāru īrānu/astamānu Centauri rising/setting SE by S / SW by S
silli īrānu/astamānu Carinae rising/setting SSE / SSW
sillavāru īrānu/astamānu Achernar rising/setting S by E / S by W
suhailu Pole of Canopus South
2.3 History of the sidereal compass
Dhivehi’s sidereal compass was borrowed from Arab or Persian
seafarers during the medieval period.
– Names for stars/asterisms are from Arabic, e.g. Arabic العيوق
al-cayyuq ‘Capella’, cf. Dhivehi ayyugu ‘Capella’ (Reynolds 2003).
– Arab and Persian seafarers had advanced navigational
techniques and dominated Indian Ocean trade in the medieval
period.
– Maldives converted to Islam in the 12th century.
– Dhivehi phonology and lexicon was influenced by Arabic in this
period (see Cain 2000).
Maldivians depended heavily on trade with ports in India and Ceylon –
highly precise navigation was important for survival. 32-point compass
superior to a 4- or 8-point compass.
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2.4 Finding north
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N
2.4 Sidereal compass: current usage
Most old men still know all 32 points of the sidereal compass, and can
point to the directions accurately.
Where precision is necessary, some old men occasionally use sidereal
directions even on land, and even in tabletop space:
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(1) ayyugu farātu gaha bahattai-gen,
Capella side.LOC tree keep.CVB-SUC
ayyug-as kurumatu lai-gen
Capella-DAT front put.CVB-SUC
‘Keeping the tree on the Capella (rising) side, (the toy man is) putting his
front to Capella (rising).’
2.4 Sidereal compass: current usage
However, most young people have never heard of this compass
system.
Knowledge has not been transferred to younger generations. This is
related to:
– Decline of fishing and trading as occupations
– Technological advances: mechanized boats, GPS navigation
– Introduction of compulsory, standardized, English-medium
schooling in lieu of traditional methods of educating children
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3 Topographic terms
3.1 Loss of topographic distinctions
Dhivehi has a number of terms for atoll topography:
– dasē ‘lagoon shore’, matifus ‘ocean shore’, futtaru ‘reef (on ocean
side)’, vilu ‘shallow patch in lagoon’, eterevari ‘lagoon’
– eggamu ‘inland’ and atiri ‘beach’ form a directional axis on many
Maldivian islands
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However, most of these terms are
not used or even understood by
inhabitants of Malé, the capital.
Due to land reclamation:
– Distinction between lagoon
and ocean sides has been
lost.
– No more natural beaches.
3.2 ‘Going up’ and ‘going down’
Directional verbs arān ‘go up, climb’ and erēn ‘go down into
(something)’.
Also used for motion from water to land (arān) and from land to water
(erēn).
On land:
– arān ‘go inland’
– erēn ‘go beachwards’
On Fonadhoo (Laamu Atoll), however, arān means ‘go towards the
ocean shore’ and erēn means ‘go towards the lagoon shore’.
– Fonadhoo used to have a small ridge along its oceanward side,
but this was levelled out by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
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3.3 ‘Going up’ and ‘going down’
Fonadhoo system still in use, despite the new topography.
However, we might predict this to change in the future, and possibly
even with the next generation.
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arān
erēn
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4 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in
circular configurations
4.1 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in Dhivehi
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kurimati ‘front’, fahat ‘back’, furagas ‘back’
Most often used in intrinsic FoR. Relative FoR uses also possible.
But for objects in circular
configurations, front/back
terms used in a highly
unusual way:
‘front’ = inner side
‘back’ = outer side
4.1 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in Dhivehi
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4.2 Conceptualizing fronts and backs
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Inner sides of objects in ring-like configurations are conceptualized as
front sides, and outer sides as back sides. Why?
Three plausible analogies in play here:
– Groups of people tend to sit or stand with their fronts facing
inwards.
– Artefacts with intrinsic fronts (furniture, household appliances,
etc.), often face inwards, with their backs to the walls.
– On atoll islands, which form ring-like clusters, access is normally
from the inner (lagoonward) side of the island, which is
conceptualized as the island’s ‘front’ or ‘face’.
4.3 Future of ‘front’ and ‘back’
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This usage of front/back terms is still very much alive in Dhivehi, though
again there is a prospect of change:
– More Maldivians moving to Malé, conceptualized as a city rather
than an island in a larger atoll. This may undermine the analogy in
which inner sides are seen as fronts.
– Contact with English may promote the reflectional subtype of the
relative FoR.
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5 Summary and
conclusions
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Dhivehi has a number of systems of spatial reference that are
disappearing or which may soon be threatened.
Threats mostly come from:
– natural changes in topography (tsunami, rising sea levels)
– artificial changes to topography (land reclamation, urbanization)
– language contact and bilingualism (English)
– technology (GPS, mechanized boats)
– changing way of life in the Maldives (decline in fishing and trading
and increase in white-collar jobs on land)
Many of these threats are present across the world, and relate to
underlying causes such as globalization, technological advances, and
climate change.
Non-endangered languages can have highly endangered ways of
conceptualizing and expressing space.
Acknowledgements
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Supervisory team: Alice Gaby, Anna Margetts, Bill Palmer
Native-speaker consultants: Ismail Ibrahim, Ahmed Rasheed, Nazim
Abdul Sattar, Ahmed Hassaan, and many others.
Australian Research Council DP grant: G1100293 ‘Thinking and
talking about atolls: the role of environment in shaping language and
our understanding of physical space’
References
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Cain, Bruce D. 2000. Dhivehi (Maldivian): A Synchronic and Diachronic
Study. Cornell University PhD thesis.
Goodenough, Ward H. 1953. Native Astronomy in the Central Carolines.
University of Pennsylvania Museum Monographs.
Halpern, Michael. 1986. Sidereal Compasses: a case for Carolinean-Arab
links. The Journal of the Polynesian Society 95(4). 441–460.
Reynolds, Christopher. 2003. A Maldivian Dictionary. London:
RoutledgeCurzon.
Woodroffe, Colin D. 2008. Reef-island topography and the vulnerability of
atolls to sea-level rise. Global and Planetary Change 62. 77–96.