Jon (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sloopjonb) wrote in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} cartographica,@ 2003-10-11 20:14:00 |
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Isolinguistic
Political borders aren't the only lines shown on maps for the purposes of dividing up human beings. Linguistic maps are a fascinating study, and I present a selection here for your delectation. Looking through these and others I was struck by how often such maps are used for political purposes; there are many linguistic maps where the languages spoken all tie up nicely with the political borders, which looks very neat but is rarely accurate. Further examples of, er, creative ethnography are mentioned below.
Firstly, Ethnologue, which lists details of every(?) language in the world, and has maps of several countries showing the distribution of languages therein. It seemed pretty fair and accurate from what I saw, although somebody had managed to make them swallow some shocking lies about the current state of Cornish.
A general collection can be found at the Language Map Collection, with some interesting examples listed. I particularly liked Orbis Latinus, which seemed to have been translated literally from the Latin in some places. (It contained an elegant demolition of Romanian claims to be descended from the Roman province of Dacia, too).
I am currently reading Peacemakers, an entertaining study of the Treaty of Versailles, where ethnic and linguistic maps were frequently used to back up (or refute) claims to territory, so I was interested in the Ethno-Linguistic Map of Europe Before 1914 and its companion, the Ethno-Linguistic Map of Europe after World War I. Very impressive, and again quite accurate so far as I can see, although once more Cornish is shown as a living language ... perhaps there's some mysterious disinformation department in Truro feeding people this stuff.
My final recommendation in this field is the ambitious and decidedly speculative Language Map of 6th century Europe (in French). It is fascinating to see the Hungarians out beyond the Urals and Welsh spoken in the English Midlands, but I question the existence of 'roman de dacie', and I detect a bit of francophone chauvinism in the restricted ranges allotted to Basque and Breton. Those Germans out in the Crimea are Goths, incidentally, which may account for the high sales of very pale foundation powder in Sevastopol to this day.
Political borders aren't the only lines shown on maps for the purposes of dividing up human beings. Linguistic maps are a fascinating study, and I present a selection here for your delectation. Looking through these and others I was struck by how often such maps are used for political purposes; there are many linguistic maps where the languages spoken all tie up nicely with the political borders, which looks very neat but is rarely accurate. Further examples of, er, creative ethnography are mentioned below.
Firstly, Ethnologue, which lists details of every(?) language in the world, and has maps of several countries showing the distribution of languages therein. It seemed pretty fair and accurate from what I saw, although somebody had managed to make them swallow some shocking lies about the current state of Cornish.
A general collection can be found at the Language Map Collection, with some interesting examples listed. I particularly liked Orbis Latinus, which seemed to have been translated literally from the Latin in some places. (It contained an elegant demolition of Romanian claims to be descended from the Roman province of Dacia, too).
I am currently reading Peacemakers, an entertaining study of the Treaty of Versailles, where ethnic and linguistic maps were frequently used to back up (or refute) claims to territory, so I was interested in the Ethno-Linguistic Map of Europe Before 1914 and its companion, the Ethno-Linguistic Map of Europe after World War I. Very impressive, and again quite accurate so far as I can see, although once more Cornish is shown as a living language ... perhaps there's some mysterious disinformation department in Truro feeding people this stuff.
My final recommendation in this field is the ambitious and decidedly speculative Language Map of 6th century Europe (in French). It is fascinating to see the Hungarians out beyond the Urals and Welsh spoken in the English Midlands, but I question the existence of 'roman de dacie', and I detect a bit of francophone chauvinism in the restricted ranges allotted to Basque and Breton. Those Germans out in the Crimea are Goths, incidentally, which may account for the high sales of very pale foundation powder in Sevastopol to this day.
