The World’s Linguistic Diversity

I chose the featured works in this collection to illustrate different aspects of linguistic diversity. The language atlas (edited by Wurm et al.) gives a relatively up to date indication of the number of different languages spoken in the world today. (Note that the Atlas of Languages unfortunately does not include Sign Languages, but Sign-Hub is an up to date resource.) It shows well, like the Glottolog map linked below, how languages and language families are differently distributed around the world. These distributions can be used to infer aspects of population history, such as migrations and population spread. Because language changes in systematic ways, we can undo those changes, making contemporary languages a major source of information about the past, particularly in areas with no long-term written records (see also the Change portion of the exhibit). Many of these languages are endangered, however. Half the world’s languages are currently threatened. While 90% of the world’s languages are spoken by 10% of the world’s population, about 10 languages (including English, Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, and Portuguese) account for about two-thirds of language speakers. There is thus a huge skew in language use. On the other hand, there are large languages, with millions of speakers, which are digitally underresourced (see also Technology).

Featured Titles

Atlas of languages of intercultural communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas

edited by Stephen A. Wurm, Peter Mühlhäusler, and Darrell T. Tryon

This book illustrates the spread of language diversity across the world, where languages are spoken (language ‘hot spots’), and what stands to be lost by the encroachment of a few large languages.

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Cataloguing the world's endangered languages

edited by Lyle Campbell and Anna Belew

This is a more in-depth study of language endangerment, and shows the extent of the potential for language loss across the world. The authors discuss what it means to call a language ‘endangered’ and how even large languages, with millions of speakers, can fall out of use quickly.

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The languages of the world

by Kenneth Katzner

Though somewhat out of date, this is a useful volume summarizing approximately 200 of the world’s 7000 languages, showcasing the diversity of scripts in use as well as how different languages have different grammatical structure.

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  The above featured works illustrate the rich array of languages spoken and signed across the world. Other tools, like maps and documentation of oral or written language, are also effective at telling the story of language use.  
  There’s a huge array of languages spoken closer to home. This interactive map by Jill Hubley, for example, features the most commonly spoken languages in New York City. It uses data from the census to show which languages (not just English and Spanish) are most common. New York is now home to some 700 languages (almost 10% of the world's languages), including languages where the majority of speakers now live in the City. Read more about the endangered languages of New York City from the Endangered Language Alliance. For endangered languages around the world, explore the resources at the Endangered Languages Project.  
 

Glottolog Map

This map was created by Robert Forkel with information from the Glottolog catalog and Open Street Map. It shows each language as a dot point; the dots are colored by language family, to show which languages are most closely related to one another. The notion of a language family is somewhat similar to “families” and relatedness in biology, and these ideas were being developed around the same time. (The Change portion of the exhibit gives some more information.) 

 

The World's Oldest Language Map

The Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk includes the oldest known map of languages. The book was composed by Mahmud al-Kashgari; it’s a “compendium of Turkic languages” from the 11th century. The Yale Library holds a 20th century reprint of the historic text.

  
  There are also collections of documents which are very useful for language and cultural documentation but which were compiled for other purposes. At Yale, a great example is the Kilpatrick Collection, a large group of writings in Tsalagi (ᏣᎳᎩ; Cherokee) held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection contains letters, notes, financial records, and other materials in syllabary compiled over a span of more than 40 years. Below is a note in Cherokee written in 1964 on the back of a published booklet.   
 

Language documentation and endangerment is not just about the languages, of course. It’s also inextricably linked to language communities. Linguists work with language communities on language documentation and reclamation/revitalization. This work is of many different kinds but could involve writing grammars and dictionaries and making recordings of language in use. Many of these recordings are archived in digital repositories.  Language recordings don’t exist in a vacuum, they are recordings of something, language that records knowledge, memories, opinions, and events.

Some languages are very well recorded, with huge amounts of information about them, recordings from many speakers or signers, and across many different genres. For example, this Ainu corpus is both a “repository” (that is, a source for language material preservation) and a way to display the materials so it can be used. And, of course, Ainu is still spoken.

Other languages, however, are known only from fragments which happened to be preserved. Some were recorded by linguists, others are samples of writing.  South Picene is a language spoken several thousand years ago and recorded only incidentally in fragments on bronze texts. The Pequot language is mostly documented from the papers of Ezra Stiles. Another example comes from wax cylinder recordings made around the turn of the 20th century. This example is of an Aboriginal palawa kani song from Tasmania recorded in 1899, now digitized.  Early 20th century Native American voices are being preserved digitally at UC Berkeley.

Learn more at the Endangered Languages Project, a worldwide collaboration dedicated to strengthening endangered languages, or Endangered Language Archive (ELAR), a digital repository preserving and publishing endangered language documentation materials from around the world. The Wâpanâak (Wampanoag) Language Reclamation Project is an inspiring example.

 

  
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