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Linguasphere Observatory

January 13, 2023

The Linguasphere Observatory (or "the Observatoire", based on its original French and legal title: Observatoire Linguistique) is a non-profit transnational research network, devoted (alongside related programs) to the gathering, study, classification, editing and free distribution online of the updatable text (initially in English) of a fully indexed and comprehensive Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities.

History

The Observatoire was created in Quebec in 1983 and was subsequently established and registered in Normandy as a non-profit association under the honorary presidency of the late Léopold Sédar Senghor, a French-language poet and the first president of Senegal. Its founding director is David Dalby, former director of the International African Institute and emeritus reader in the University of London, and its first research secretary was Philippe Blanchet, a Provençal-language poet currently serving as Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Rennes. Since 2010, the deputy director and webmaster of the Observatoire has been Pierrick le Feuvre, with the chairman of its research council being Roland Breton, emeritus professor at the University of Paris VIII. The Observatoire's research hub is currently based in the preserved county of Dyfed, Wales and, in the European Union, in Normandy, France. Its title in Welsh is Wylfa Ieithoedd, literally the "Observatory (of) languages", together with its publishing program (in Cymraeg or "Welsh" = cy. Gwasg y Byd Iaith, i.e. "Press (of) the World (of) Language").

The Observatoire has developed an innovative scheme of philological classification, coding all living and recorded languages within a global referential framework or "linguascale". This Linguascale Framework uses a decimal structure (see below) to record both genetic and geographic categories of relationship (termed phylozones and geozones, respectively).

In 1999/2000, the Observatoire published its first 2-volume Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities.[1] Reviews were published by Edward J. Vajda in Language and by Anthony P. Grant in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society.[2]

The Observatoire has now prepared a revised edition of the Linguasphere Register from 2010, the first of a projected series of regular updates at 10-year intervals. The current edition (LS-2010), comprising substantial materials from the foundation edition of 2000, is published online from 2011 as a freely available public resource and an online data-base, compiled and co-ordinated by David Dalby and Pierrick le Feuvre. Provision is made for the online gathering of additional and improved data, and for the open discussion of proposals and criticisms.

From 2001 until December 2005, the Linguasphere Observatory was actively involved in collaboration with the British Standards Institution BSI Group and with ISO/TC 37in the design and development of a four-letter (alpha-4) code covering—potentially—every recorded language variety in the world. The Observatoire was not, however, associated with or responsible for the final ISO 639-6 standard which was a partial result of this collaboration, approved and published by ISO in 2009. It is the policy of the Observatoire that its on-going independent work on language coding should also be complementary to and supportive of the ISO 639 international standards,

The Observatoire expresses its praise and gratitude to the parallel pioneering work of Barbara Grimes, with her husband Joseph, in her position - based in Hawaii until her retirement from 1996 - as the creative Editor of the Summer Institute of Linguistics' Ethnologue: Languages of the World.

The Linguasphere Register and Linguascale referential framework

The Linguascale framework is a referential system covering all languages, as published in the Linguasphere Register in 2000 and subsequently refined in 2010. It comprises a flexible coding formula which seeks to situate each language and dialect within the totality of the world's living and recorded languages, having regard to ongoing linguistic research.

The first part of this linguascale is the decimal classification referred to above, consisting of a linguasphere key of two numerals denoting the relevant phylozone or geozone: from 00. to 99. This provides a systematic numerical key for the initial classification of any of the world's languages, following the principles set out in the Linguasphere Register. The first numeral of the key represents one of the ten referential sectors into which the world's languages are initially divided. The sector can either be a phylosector, in which the constituent languages are considered to be in a diachronic relationship one with another, or a geosector, in which languages are grouped geographically rather than historically.

The second numeral is used to represent the ten zones into which each geosector is divided for referential purposes. The component zones, like the sectors, are described as either phylozones or geozones, based on the nature of the relationship among their constituent languages: either historical or geographical.

The second part of the linguascale consists of three capital letters (majuscules): from -AAA- to -ZZZ-. Each zone is divided into one or more sets, with each set being represented by the first majuscule of this three-letter (alpha-3) component. Each set is divided into one or more chains (represented by the second majuscule) and each chain is into one or more nets (represented by the third majuscule). The division of the languages of a zone into sets, chains and nets is based on relative degrees of linguistic proximity, as measured in principle by approximate proportions of shared basic vocabulary. Geozones are on average divided into more sets than phylozones because relationships among languages within the latter are by definition more obvious and much closer.

The third and final part of the linguascale consists of up to three lowercase letters (minuscules), used to identify a language or dialect with precision: from aaa to zzz. The first letter of this sequence represents an outer unit (preferred from 2010 to the original term of "outer language", to avoid the shifting and often emotive applications of the terms "language" and "dialect"). The inner units and language varieties that may comprise any outer unit are coded using a second, and wherever necessary a third minuscule letter.

Examples

The application of the linguascale may be illustrated with the concrete examples below, chosen from within the English language.

For example,

  • The code covering all forms of English is 52-ABA, where 5= represents the Indo-European phylosector, 52= represents the Germanic phylozone, 52-A represents the Norsk+ Frysk set (a compound-name chosen to cover the contents of the Germanic phylozone), 52-AB represents the English+ Anglo-Creole chain, and 52-ABA is the English net. Within this net, the outer units are:
    • 52-ABA-a – Scots+ Northumbrian.
    • 52-ABA-b – "Anglo-English" (the traditional localised varieties of southern Great Britain and also Ireland).
    • 52-ABA-c – Global English (varieties of modern English as spoken and written around the world).
  • Some more specific examples of English varieties are:
    • 52-ABA-abb is the Geordie traditional variety: belonging to 52-ABA-a Scots+ Northumbrian outer language, and 52-ABA-ab Northumbrian.
    • 52-ABA-bco is the Norfolk traditional variety: belonging to 52-ABA-b "Anglo-English" outer unit, and specifically to 52-ABA-bc Southern (British) traditional English.
    • 52-ABA-cof covers the range of (non-creolised) Nigerian English : belonging to 52-ABA-c Global English outer unit, and 52-ABA-co West-African English. Nigerian English is thus distinguished from the often overlapping 52-ABB-bf Enpi (or "NP", from the abbreviation of so-called "Nigerian Pijin"): belonging to 52-ABB Anglo-Creole net, and 52-ABB-b Wes-kos (West Coast Anglo-Creole).

Languages of London

A practical application of the Linguasphere Register and its linguascale in the study of a complex urban linguistic environment has been as the referential framework for successive surveys of over 200 languages other than English spoken by plurilingual children at state schools in London (representing just under 40% of the total number of children attending), as edited in 2000 by Baker and Eversley and in 2010 by Eversley et al.[3]

See also

  • Language code with tabulated example of coding systems (for English and Spanish), including ISO 639 and Linguasphere.

“Langues de la Liberté/Languages of Liberty”

In Paris, from 1987, the Observatoire linguistique created a bilingual exhibition Langues de la Liberté / Languages of Liberty, tracing the transnational development of certain basic concepts of personal freedom through the interaction of English and French, rather than by the action of any one nation. At the outset of a series of 34 illustrated tryptychs, attention was drawn to the historical role of other transnational languages in the development of such concepts, including Greek and German.[4]

The exhibition was sponsored by the government of a bilingual nation, Canada, by the international francophone Agence (ACCT) and by the region of Haute-Normandie. It was inaugurated in Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou on 6 June 1989, and presented there throughout the summer of 1989 as the official Canadian contribution to the bicentenary celebrations of the French Revolution.

At the subsequent presentation of this bilingual exhibition at the Hôtel de Région in Rouen (Haute-Normandie), from 23 September to 21 October 1989, the Observatoire linguistique organised the first public display of the only surviving contemporary copy of the vernacular (and arguably pre-Latin) text of England's Magna Carta, written in 13th century French.

Thanks to continued support from Canada, the exhibition was subsequently presented by the Observatoire in Belgium and England, at the Palais des Congrès in Liège and at the Commonwealth Institute in London in 1990, and finally in Australia, at Old Parliament House, Canberra in May 1991.

In the context of the need to design a plurilingual framework of ethics for a future planetary society, the Observatoire has announced its intention to return to the transnational theme of Magna Carta in 2015, on the occasion of the 8th centenary of the signing of its formal Latin version at Runnymede in 2020.

“In the galaxy of languages, each person’s voice is a star”

The motto of the Observatoire linguistique dates from 1990—in French: Dans la galaxie des langues, la voix de chaque personne est une étoile (translated into English as above).

The Observatoire adopted these words as its guiding philosophy on the occasion of the first series of debates organised by the Observatoire linguistique in 1990–1991, at Fleury-sur-Andelle in Haute-Normandie, at Maillane in Provence and at Huy in Wallonie, sponsored by each of the relevant regions, on the subject of Nos langues et l'unité de l'Europe ("Our languages and the unity of Europe"). The guest of honour at the first of these debates was André Martinet (1908–1999), doyen of trans-Atlantic linguistics.

From the year 2000 UNESCO adopted and adapted the Observatoire's motto in the form: "In the galaxy of languages, each word is a star".[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ David Dalby, with David Barrett & Michael Mann, Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities, Gwasg y Byd Iaith for Observatoire linguistique: Hebron, Wales, 1999–2000 (vol.1) ISBN 0-9532919-1-X & (vol. 2) ISBN 0-9532919-2-8
  2. ^ See reviews of the Linguasphere Register by Edward J. Vajda in Language (Linguistic Society of America), Vol.77, 3 (Sept. 2001) pp. 606–608, and by Anthony P.Grant in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society (June 1, 2003).
  3. ^ P.Baker and Eversley, J., Multilingual Capital: the languages of London's schoolchildren and their relevance to economic, social and educational policies, Battlebridge for Corporation of London: London 2000 ISBN 1-903292-00-X (also P.Baker and J.Kim, Global London, Battlebridge: London 2003 ISBN 1-903292-09-3) and in J.Eversley, D. Mehmedbegović, A.Sanderson, T.Tinsley, M. vonAhn and R.D.Wiggins, Language Capital: Mapping the languages of London's schoolchildren, CILT National Centre for Languages: London 2010 ISBN 978-1-904243-96-0
  4. ^ The bilingual texts of the exhibition's tryptychs are presented in: David Dalby, Le français et l'anglais : Langues de la Liberté, Observatoire linguistique: Cressenville 1989 ISBN 2-9502097-4-2.

External links

 
Wikidata has the property:
  •   Linguasphere code (P1396) (see uses)
  • From May 2011, provides free online access to the current research & reference materials of the Observatoire linguistique /Linguasphere Observatory, including the complete Linguascale coding of the world's languages (LS-2010, totalling over 32,800 coded entries & over 70,900 linguistic names) and the contents of the original Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages & Speech Communities (LS-2000).
  • http://www.hortensj-garden.org/index.php?tnc=1&tr=lsr

January 13, 2023
linguasphere, observatory, observatoire, based, original, french, legal, title, observatoire, linguistique, profit, transnational, research, network, devoted, alongside, related, programs, gathering, study, classification, editing, free, distribution, online, . The Linguasphere Observatory or the Observatoire based on its original French and legal title Observatoire Linguistique is a non profit transnational research network devoted alongside related programs to the gathering study classification editing and free distribution online of the updatable text initially in English of a fully indexed and comprehensive Linguasphere Register of the World s Languages and Speech Communities Contents 1 History 2 The Linguasphere Register and Linguascale referential framework 2 1 Examples 2 2 Languages of London 2 3 See also 3 Langues de la Liberte Languages of Liberty 4 In the galaxy of languages each person s voice is a star 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksHistory EditThe Observatoire was created in Quebec in 1983 and was subsequently established and registered in Normandy as a non profit association under the honorary presidency of the late Leopold Sedar Senghor a French language poet and the first president of Senegal Its founding director is David Dalby former director of the International African Institute and emeritus reader in the University of London and its first research secretary was Philippe Blanchet a Provencal language poet currently serving as Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Rennes Since 2010 the deputy director and webmaster of the Observatoire has been Pierrick le Feuvre with the chairman of its research council being Roland Breton emeritus professor at the University of Paris VIII The Observatoire s research hub is currently based in the preserved county of Dyfed Wales and in the European Union in Normandy France Its title in Welsh is Wylfa Ieithoedd literally the Observatory of languages together with its publishing program in Cymraeg or Welsh cy Gwasg y Byd Iaith i e Press of the World of Language The Observatoire has developed an innovative scheme of philological classification coding all living and recorded languages within a global referential framework or linguascale This Linguascale Framework uses a decimal structure see below to record both genetic and geographic categories of relationship termed phylozones and geozones respectively In 1999 2000 the Observatoire published its first 2 volume Linguasphere Register of the World s Languages and Speech Communities 1 Reviews were published by Edward J Vajda in Language and by Anthony P Grant in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society 2 The Observatoire has now prepared a revised edition of the Linguasphere Register from 2010 the first of a projected series of regular updates at 10 year intervals The current edition LS 2010 comprising substantial materials from the foundation edition of 2000 is published online from 2011 as a freely available public resource and an online data base compiled and co ordinated by David Dalby and Pierrick le Feuvre Provision is made for the online gathering of additional and improved data and for the open discussion of proposals and criticisms From 2001 until December 2005 the Linguasphere Observatory was actively involved in collaboration with the British Standards Institution BSI Group and with ISO TC 37in the design and development of a four letter alpha 4 code covering potentially every recorded language variety in the world The Observatoire was not however associated with or responsible for the final ISO 639 6 standard which was a partial result of this collaboration approved and published by ISO in 2009 It is the policy of the Observatoire that its on going independent work on language coding should also be complementary to and supportive of the ISO 639 international standards The Observatoire expresses its praise and gratitude to the parallel pioneering work of Barbara Grimes with her husband Joseph in her position based in Hawaii until her retirement from 1996 as the creative Editor of the Summer Institute of Linguistics Ethnologue Languages of the World The Linguasphere Register and Linguascale referential framework EditThe Linguascale framework is a referential system covering all languages as published in the Linguasphere Register in 2000 and subsequently refined in 2010 It comprises a flexible coding formula which seeks to situate each language and dialect within the totality of the world s living and recorded languages having regard to ongoing linguistic research The first part of this linguascale is the decimal classification referred to above consisting of a linguasphere key of two numerals denoting the relevant phylozone or geozone from 00 to 99 This provides a systematic numerical key for the initial classification of any of the world s languages following the principles set out in the Linguasphere Register The first numeral of the key represents one of the ten referential sectors into which the world s languages are initially divided The sector can either be a phylosector in which the constituent languages are considered to be in a diachronic relationship one with another or a geosector in which languages are grouped geographically rather than historically The second numeral is used to represent the ten zones into which each geosector is divided for referential purposes The component zones like the sectors are described as either phylozones or geozones based on the nature of the relationship among their constituent languages either historical or geographical The second part of the linguascale consists of three capital letters majuscules from AAA to ZZZ Each zone is divided into one or more sets with each set being represented by the first majuscule of this three letter alpha 3 component Each set is divided into one or more chains represented by the second majuscule and each chain is into one or more nets represented by the third majuscule The division of the languages of a zone into sets chains and nets is based on relative degrees of linguistic proximity as measured in principle by approximate proportions of shared basic vocabulary Geozones are on average divided into more sets than phylozones because relationships among languages within the latter are by definition more obvious and much closer The third and final part of the linguascale consists of up to three lowercase letters minuscules used to identify a language or dialect with precision from aaa to zzz The first letter of this sequence represents an outer unit preferred from 2010 to the original term of outer language to avoid the shifting and often emotive applications of the terms language and dialect The inner units and language varieties that may comprise any outer unit are coded using a second and wherever necessary a third minuscule letter Examples Edit The application of the linguascale may be illustrated with the concrete examples below chosen from within the English language For example The code covering all forms of English is 52 ABA where 5 represents the Indo European phylosector 52 represents the Germanic phylozone 52 A represents the Norsk Frysk set a compound name chosen to cover the contents of the Germanic phylozone 52 AB represents the English Anglo Creole chain and 52 ABA is the English net Within this net the outer units are 52 ABA a Scots Northumbrian 52 ABA b Anglo English the traditional localised varieties of southern Great Britain and also Ireland 52 ABA c Global English varieties of modern English as spoken and written around the world Some more specific examples of English varieties are 52 ABA abb is the Geordie traditional variety belonging to 52 ABA a Scots Northumbrian outer language and 52 ABA ab Northumbrian 52 ABA bco is the Norfolk traditional variety belonging to 52 ABA b Anglo English outer unit and specifically to 52 ABA bc Southern British traditional English 52 ABA cof covers the range of non creolised Nigerian English belonging to 52 ABA c Global English outer unit and 52 ABA co West African English Nigerian English is thus distinguished from the often overlapping 52 ABB bf Enpi or NP from the abbreviation of so called Nigerian Pijin belonging to 52 ABB Anglo Creole net and 52 ABB b Wes kos West Coast Anglo Creole Languages of London Edit A practical application of the Linguasphere Register and its linguascale in the study of a complex urban linguistic environment has been as the referential framework for successive surveys of over 200 languages other than English spoken by plurilingual children at state schools in London representing just under 40 of the total number of children attending as edited in 2000 by Baker and Eversley and in 2010 by Eversley et al 3 See also Edit Language code with tabulated example of coding systems for English and Spanish including ISO 639 and Linguasphere Langues de la Liberte Languages of Liberty EditIn Paris from 1987 the Observatoire linguistique created a bilingual exhibition Langues de la Liberte Languages of Liberty tracing the transnational development of certain basic concepts of personal freedom through the interaction of English and French rather than by the action of any one nation At the outset of a series of 34 illustrated tryptychs attention was drawn to the historical role of other transnational languages in the development of such concepts including Greek and German 4 The exhibition was sponsored by the government of a bilingual nation Canada by the international francophone Agence ACCT and by the region of Haute Normandie It was inaugurated in Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou on 6 June 1989 and presented there throughout the summer of 1989 as the official Canadian contribution to the bicentenary celebrations of the French Revolution At the subsequent presentation of this bilingual exhibition at the Hotel de Region in Rouen Haute Normandie from 23 September to 21 October 1989 the Observatoire linguistique organised the first public display of the only surviving contemporary copy of the vernacular and arguably pre Latin text of England s Magna Carta written in 13th century French Thanks to continued support from Canada the exhibition was subsequently presented by the Observatoire in Belgium and England at the Palais des Congres in Liege and at the Commonwealth Institute in London in 1990 and finally in Australia at Old Parliament House Canberra in May 1991 In the context of the need to design a plurilingual framework of ethics for a future planetary society the Observatoire has announced its intention to return to the transnational theme of Magna Carta in 2015 on the occasion of the 8th centenary of the signing of its formal Latin version at Runnymede in 2020 In the galaxy of languages each person s voice is a star EditThe motto of the Observatoire linguistique dates from 1990 in French Dans la galaxie des langues la voix de chaque personne est une etoile translated into English as above The Observatoire adopted these words as its guiding philosophy on the occasion of the first series of debates organised by the Observatoire linguistique in 1990 1991 at Fleury sur Andelle in Haute Normandie at Maillane in Provence and at Huy in Wallonie sponsored by each of the relevant regions on the subject of Nos langues et l unite de l Europe Our languages and the unity of Europe The guest of honour at the first of these debates was Andre Martinet 1908 1999 doyen of trans Atlantic linguistics From the year 2000 UNESCO adopted and adapted the Observatoire s motto in the form In the galaxy of languages each word is a star citation needed See also EditEthnologue Language observatoryReferences Edit David Dalby with David Barrett amp Michael Mann Linguasphere Register of the World s Languages and Speech Communities Gwasg y Byd Iaith for Observatoire linguistique Hebron Wales 1999 2000 vol 1 ISBN 0 9532919 1 X amp vol 2 ISBN 0 9532919 2 8 See reviews of the Linguasphere Register by Edward J Vajda in Language Linguistic Society of America Vol 77 3 Sept 2001 pp 606 608 and by Anthony P Grant in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society June 1 2003 P Baker and Eversley J Multilingual Capital the languages of London s schoolchildren and their relevance to economic social and educational policies Battlebridge for Corporation of London London 2000 ISBN 1 903292 00 X also P Baker and J Kim Global London Battlebridge London 2003 ISBN 1 903292 09 3 and in J Eversley D Mehmedbegovic A Sanderson T Tinsley M vonAhn and R D Wiggins Language Capital Mapping the languages of London s schoolchildren CILT National Centre for Languages London 2010 ISBN 978 1 904243 96 0 The bilingual texts of the exhibition s tryptychs are presented in David Dalby Le francais et l anglais Langues de la Liberte Observatoire linguistique Cressenville 1989 ISBN 2 9502097 4 2 External links Edit Wikidata has the property Linguasphere code P1396 see uses From May 2011 https web archive org web 20120614005015 http www linguasphere info provides free online access to the current research amp reference materials of the Observatoire linguistique Linguasphere Observatory including the complete Linguascale coding of the world s languages LS 2010 totalling over 32 800 coded entries amp over 70 900 linguistic names and the contents of the original Linguasphere Register of the World s Languages amp Speech Communities LS 2000 http www hortensj garden org index php tnc 1 amp tr lsr Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Linguasphere Observatory amp oldid 1055007385, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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