“LANGUAGES of the WORLD”
(Jazyki mira):
A longitudinal project
Paris, February 29, 2012
Andrej A. Kibrik
Yuri B. Koryakov
(Institute of Linguistics, RAN)
aakibrik@gmail.com
“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
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many human languages as possible
Format: encyclopedia
Languaqe: Russian
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Template
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Tool: typologically-oriented, uncommitted template,
including information on:
 external aspects of language:
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•
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history
geography
sociolinguistics
dialects
..........
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phonetics and phonology
formal morphology
representation of semantic categories
syntactic constructions
lexicon
 internal features:
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Standard typologically-oriented templates
Template
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
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Properties of the template
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Positive
 very general
• easily applicable to any language
 flexible
• allows to fit in as much useful info as possible
 easy to use
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• 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 somewhat outdated (developed in the 1970s)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
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1990s to now
 Switch from the encyclopedia format to
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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
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7
17 published volumes
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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
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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
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Not yet published projects
 I. Near completion
 II. In the making
 III. Incipient stage
 IV. Projected
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I. Near completion
18. Semitic II: Ethio-Semitic
19. Relict Indoeuropean languages of
western and central Asia
20. Dravidian
21. Relict non-Indoeuropean languages of
Europe
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II. In the making
22. Austroasiatic and Andamanese
23. Mande
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III. Incipient stage
24. Relict Indoeuropean languages of
Europe
25. Sino-Tibetan
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IV. Projected
26. Tai-Kadai
27. Miao-Yao
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21 24
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20 22
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In toto
 10 forthcoming volumes
 or more?
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Applications
 Reference tool
 Educational instrument
 Tool for quantitative research
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Database “Languages of the
World” (Jazyki mira)
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Based on the encyclopedia
Initiated in the 1980s
Significantly advanced in the 2000s
Vladimir Polyakov and Valery Solovyev
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Features, JM
 p. 41
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The database
 http://www.dblang.ru/en/Default.aspx
 About 350 languages, mostly Eurasia
 Relatively complete coverage of languages
 Hierarchically organized features
 3800 binary features
 Over 1 million data points
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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
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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.
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Hebrew Modern
Persian
Nenets
Itelmen
Chukchi
Lezgian
Abkhaz
Kabardian
Burushaski
Bengali
Chechen
Georgian
Ket
Khanty
Selkup
Uzbek
Tatar
Bashkir
Chuvash
Azerbaijani
Phylogenetic
tree, WALS
(Solovyev 2011)
Kirghiz
Hungarian
Finnish
Ukrainian
Icelandic
Russian
Polish
Czech
Komi Zyrian
Bulgarian
Breton
Danish
Sw edish
Dutch
French
Portugese
Italian
Catalan
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0.05
Ukrainian
Czech
Phylogenetic
tree, JM
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
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Language maps
 Authored by Yuri

Koryakov
http://lingvarium.org/maps.shtml
 Each volume is
accompanied by a series
of maps
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Language maps vs. Linguistic maps
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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).
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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)
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Some language maps are quite general,
such as this map of Tibeto-Burman
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While some are very focused, such as this
map of Jewish-Aramaic languages
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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
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Visual illustrations for language descriptions
Languages of Eastern
Caucasus
Source: Authier G. Grammaire kryz
(Langue caucasique d'Azerbaïdjan,
dialecte d'Alik). Paris: Peeters, 2009.
Reduction of the Vodic
territory in the 20th century
Source: Агранат Т.Б. Западный диалект
водского языка. Mitteilungen der
Societas Uralo-Altaica 26. Москва –
30
Гронинген, 2007
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.
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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
Gradual decay of French dialects
Source: Atlas of Romance languages. Moscow, 2001.
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Maps may be combined with other
representations, e.g. classification schemes
Source: Atlas of Romance languages. Moscow, 2001
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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
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Maps may rely on census data, on the communityby-community basis, subsequently generalized
Linguistic profiles of individual communities
Areas are generalized from communities
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Maps for the forthcoming publication: Коряков Ю.Б. Атлас языков России
Generalization accompanying scaling-down
Sources: Коряков Ю.Б. Атлас кавказских языков. М., 2006;
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Бурлак С.А. Сравнительно-историческое языкознание. М., 2005.
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.
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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.
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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.
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