Table Of ContentStanley D. Brunn
Roland Kehrein Editors
Language,
Society and
the State in a
Changing World
Language, Society and the State
in a Changing World
Stanley D. Brunn • Roland Kehrein
Editors
Language, Society and the
State in a Changing World
Editors
Stanley D. Brunn Roland Kehrein
Department of Geography Research Centre Deutscher Sprachatlas
University of Kentucky Marburg University
Lexington, KY, USA Marburg, Hessen, Germany
ISBN 978-3-031-18145-0 ISBN 978-3-031-18146-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18146-7
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland
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Contents
Part 1 Mapping Language Landscapes ............................................................... 1
1. A Typology for Evaluating Language Maps ................................................... 3
Adam Stone and Erik Anonby
2. Issues in Classifying and Mapping the Semitic Languages of Ethiopia ...... 33
Tekabe Legesse Feleke
3. Exploring the Linguistic Landscape of Cities Through
Crowdsourced Data ............................................................................................. 87
Christoph Purschke
4. Changing Attitudes of Beijingness to Westernized Place
Names in Beijing: From the Semi-Colonial Period to Postmodern
Twenty-First Century ........................................................................................ 113
Shangyi Zhou
5. Thematic Categories for Place Names: Topology Typology ...................... 135
Lisa M. Butler Harrington
Part 2 Language, Culture and Politics ............................................................. 155
6. Palestine’s Land Centrality and the Instrumentality
of Historical Language ...................................................................................... 157
Seif Da’Na and Laura Khoury
7. The State of Languages in South Africa ...................................................... 169
Cecil Seethal
8. Languages and Language Politics in the Paraguayan Chaco .................... 187
John Elliott and Raina Heaton
9. Reimaging the Art Scene in George Town, Penang .................................... 215
Teresa Wai See Ong
v
vi C ontents
10. Exploring Climate Change Through the Language of Art ...................... 237
Laurie Brinklow, Rilla Marshall, and Brenda Whiteway
Part 3 The Functions of Language on a Local and a Global Scale ................ 271
11. Preservation of Magahi Language in India: Contemporary
Developments ..................................................................................................... 273
Ram Nandan Prasad Sinha
12. Learning Indigenous Languages in Buenos Aires, Argentina ................. 293
Lauren E. Deal
13. Reclaiming Transformation for Inclusive and Multilingual
Education through Linguistic Landscape (LL) in South Africa
and Malaysia ...................................................................................................... 307
Michael M. Kretzer and Teresa Wai See Ong
14. Dialect Diversity and Migration: Disturbances and Dilemmas,
Perspectives from Norway ................................................................................ 337
Unn Røyneland and Elizabeth Lanza
15. Rise of English as Business Lingua Franca at the Turn
of the Century: An Overview ............................................................................ 357
Maganat Shegebayev
16. English and Bivalent Class Indexicality in Buenos Aires,
Argentina ............................................................................................................ 367
Mary-Caitlyn Valentinsson
17. The Nature of Gender Relations: The Changing Language
of Gender amid Anthropogenic Climate Change in Amazonian Peru .......... 385
Jennifer C. Langill
Part 1
Mapping Language Landscapes
A Typology for Evaluating Language Maps
Adam Stone and Erik Anonby
Contents
Introduction....................................................................................... 2
LanguageMapping:FoundationsandDevelopments........................................... 5
CriticalReflectiononLanguageMapping....................................................... 6
TowardaToolforUnderstandingLanguageMaps.............................................. 8
PresentingtheEvaluativeLanguageMappingTypology(ELM-T)............................. 11
DiscussionandConclusion....................................................................... 22
References........................................................................................ 24
Abstract
Languageisacomplexsocialphenomenon,anditsspatialcharacteristicscanbe
efficiently and powerfully represented through maps. Although language maps
arewidespread,therehasuntilrecentlybeenlittlereflectionontheactoflanguage
mapping,andthisdomaincontinuestolackcoherence.Thisarticleproposesand
delineates an evaluative language mapping typology. Using open-ended ques-
tions, this tool facilitates analysis and description of key aspects of language
maps: technical set-up, context and theme, language map type, data, visualiza-
tions and representational strategies, and overall impact. The fine-grained
SupplementaryInformation:Theonlineversioncontainssupplementarymaterialavailableat
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_235-1.
A.Stone
UniversityofVictoria,Victoria,BC,Canada
GeomaticsandCartographicResearchCentre(GCRC),CarletonUniversity,Ottawa,ON,Canada
e-mail:[email protected]
E.Anonby(*)
DepartmentofFrenchandSchoolofLinguisticsandLanguageStudies(SLaLS),Carleton
University,Ottawa,ON,Canada
e-mail:[email protected]
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 3
S. D. Brunn, R. Kehrein (eds.), Language, Society and the State in a Changing World,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18146-7_1
4 A.StoneandE.Anonby
evaluationachievedthroughthisprocessenablespeopletobuildlanguagemaps
morereflectively.
Keywords
Languagemapping·Linguisticcartography·Linguisticmapping·
Geolinguistics·Criticalcartography
Introduction
Language is central to what it means to be human. It anchors cognition, enables
complexsystemsofcommunicativebehaviours,andservesasavehiclefordefining
individual and social identities. It is an intangible aspect of human experience,
embodiedandconstantlyshiftingintimeandspace.
Maps are powerful tools for communicating how languages exist within this
space.
Butthiscommunicativestrength oftenrequiresthesacrificeofimportantdetails
(Monmonier2005),andcartographicrepresentationsofthesamelanguagesituation
canvarygreatly.
As an example of this issue, Lewis (2013) points out that many language maps
showIranasauniformlyPersian-speakingcountry.Thereare,however,severalkey
maps ofIran’slanguages that provide a more sophisticated picture ofthe language
situation:
(cid:129) The foundational ethnic map of Iran in the Atlas Narodov Mira (Bruk and
Apenchenko 1964), which has long been used as a surrogate for a map of the
country’slanguages
(cid:129) The CIA’s (1982) map, referring specifically to “ethnolinguistic groups,” which
doesnotacknowledgeitssourcesbutisclearlybasedontheearlierRussianmap
(andothersourcesbeknownstonlytoitself)
(cid:129) The carefully cartographed but small-scale map of the Middle East in the
Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (TAVO; Orywal 1988, 1991), a first major
mapexplicitlydevotedtothelanguagesoftheregion
(cid:129) Hourcadeetal.’s(2011,2012,2018)IrancartoandCartorientmapsoflanguage
ineachofIran’sdistricts:theonlyonesbasedoncensusdata–albeitincomplete
and problematic – and for which methods are clearly described and at least
somewhatreproducible
(cid:129) Izady’s(2006–2022)colourfulandperenniallyevolvinginfographsonthe“Lin-
guisticCompositionofIran”
In the Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI), Anonby, Taheri-Ardali et al.
(2015–2022) provide fine-grained language distribution maps of several of the
Iran’s provinces but have not yet produced a country-level map. Similarly,
ATypologyforEvaluatingLanguageMaps 5
Fig. 1 Ethnologue’s “map” of Iran’s languages (Eberhard et al. 2021). (Source: https://www.
ethnologue.com/country/IR/maps.©2021,SILInternational.ReproducedunderaFairUselicence
forpurposesofcriticismandeducation)
Ethnologue(Eberhardetal.2021),whichhaslanguagemapsforalmosteveryother
countryoftheworld,doesnotattempttoproduceamapforIran(Fig.1).
Even a cursory examination of the key maps listed above reveals profound
differences among them.The numberoflanguagevarietiesshownonthemaps for
Iran varies from 6 or 7 (Irancarto) to several dozen (TAVO and Izady). If
Ethnologue’s 79 listed languages for Iran were mapped out, this would inevitably
resultinamapofaverydifferentcomposition.Additionalissuesrecurringinthese
mapsrelatetovariablerepresentationandperspective:differencesinthenamesused
for language varieties, perhaps inevitable in the “translanguaging” forum of lan-
guage maps; ambiguity regarding whether varieties are considered languages or
dialects of larger languages; and differences in classification – which varieties are
groupedtogetheraspartofeachlanguage,andthecriteriabywhichtheyaregrouped
(Anonby et al. 2020). Finally, there are major differences in the geographic place-
ment of languages: three of the maps (Atlas Narodov Mira, CIA, and Izady) show
large Arabic-speaking areas in southern Iran, covering thousands of square
kilometres, but in varying locations; one map series (Irancarto/Cartorient) shows
muchsmallerareasofArabic;andonefurthermap(TAVO)showsnoArabicinthis
regionatall.Thisvariabilitysuggestsatroublinglackofrigourinmethodologyor,
in some cases, a simple lack of access to the sources of knowledge necessary for
mappinglanguagesinIran.
In short, the language situation in areas of focus such as Iran continues to be
poorlyunderstoodandisrepresentedincontradictoryways.Geographicvariationin
thedistributionoflinguisticstructuresinthisregionissimilarlylittleexplored,even
now. It was in fact this state of affairs that led to the initiation of the Atlas of the
Languages of Iran (ALI) research programme in 2009, as recounted in Anonby,
Taheri-Ardali, and Hayes (2019). Language atlas projects for Iran have been
attemptedsincethelate1950s,butnonehaveyetcometofruition.Ifanatlasproject
were to succeed, one important starting point would be a thorough review of the
