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“LANGUAGES of the WORLD”: Ongoing projects

This ongoing project, initiated in the mid-1970s, aims to create uniform and detailed descriptions of diverse human languages. The encyclopedia format includes external and internal language aspects such as history, syntax, and lexicon. While the template is somewhat outdated, it remains versatile and applicable to any language. Recent volumes encompass various language groups, integrating international collaborators and articles in English. Managed by the Institute of Linguistics, RAN, the project explores a wide range of languages, from Uralic to Baltic to Semitic. Linguistic maps, dead language studies, and future volumes extend the project's reach globally.

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“LANGUAGES of the WORLD”: Ongoing projects

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  1. “LANGUAGES of the WORLD”: Ongoing projects CML-2008 Montenegro, September 2008 Andrej A. Kibrik (Institute of Linguistics, RAN) kibrik@comtv.ru

  2. “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 many human languages as possible • Format: encyclopedia • Languaqe: Russian

  3. Template • Tool: typologically-oriented, uncommitted template, including information on: • external aspects of language: • history • geography • sociolinguistics • dialects • .......... • internal features: • phonetics and phonology • formal morphology • representation of semantic categories • syntactic constructions • lexicon

  4. Template

  5. Properties of the template • Positive • very general • easily applicable to any language • flexible • allows to fit in as much useful info as possible • Negative • somewhat outdated (developed in the 1970s) • There is no other choice than keep going with the template, as long as we are able to

  6. 1990s to now • Switch from the encyclopedia format to individual volumes on language groups • Since 1993 – 14 volumes on genealogical and areal language groupings • One megaproject is split into a large number of much more graspable and managable individual projects • In the 2000s we integrate international colleagues and collect some articles in English • Project of the Database “Languages of the World” was developing on the basis on our project, but largely in parallel, and it is only now that some integration began

  7. c o v e r e d s o f a r

  8. 14 published volumes • 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

  9. 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

  10. c o v e r e d s o f a r

  11. Not yet published projects • I. Near completion • II. In the making • III. Incipient stage • IV. Projected

  12. I. Near completion 15. Semitic I 16. Semitic II 17. Relict non-Indoeuropean languages of western Asia

  13. II. In the making 18. Relict Indoeuropean languages of western and central Asia 19. Relict non-Indoeuropean languages of Europe 20. Modern Indo-Aryan 21. Dravidian 22. Austroasiatic and Andamanese 23. Mande

  14. III. Incipient stage 24. Relict Indoeuropean languages of Europe 25. Sino-Tibetan

  15. IV. Projected • 26. Tai-Kadai • 27. Miao-Yao

  16. In toto • 13 forthcoming volumes • or more?

  17. Semitic I • Akkadian • North-Central • Hebrew... • Aramaic...

  18. Semitic II • South-Central • Arabic... • Ethio-Semitic • South Arabian

  19. Working with dead languages • many Semitic • some Indoeuropean • Relict non-Indoeuropean languages of western Asia

  20. URARTU HURRITES

  21. Linguistic maps • Authored by Yuri Koryakov • Each volume is accompanied by a series of maps

  22. Some are quite general, such as this map of Tibeto-Burman

  23. Or this map of Semitic in the 2nd millennium B.C.

  24. While some are very focused, such as this map of Jewish-Aramaic languages

  25. Or this map of Old Hebrew inscriptions

  26. c o v e r e d s o f a r f o rthcoming

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