languages of the world · 2019-12-13 · our itinerary •i’ll introduce various language...

LanguagesoftheWorld

KevinDuh

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Goalsofthislecture

1. Appreciatethediversity oflanguages

2. Discusssomeimportantlinguisticphenomenon andclassificationsmayhelpyouwithyourNaturalLanguageProcessingresearch

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Outline

1. Whatisalanguage?2. LanguageChange3. WorldTour4. LanguageUniversals

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Whatisalanguage?• Alanguageis“a productofthecollectivemindoflinguisticgroups”-- FerdinanddeSaussure

• “Alanguageisadialectwithanarmyandnavy”– MaxWeinreich– E.g.Chinese“dialects”,Scandinavian“languages”

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ferdinand_de_Saussure_by_Jullien.png

From:http://epyc.yivo.org/content/12_1.php

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Definitionoflanguageintermsof“MutualIntelligibility”

• Twocaveats:– Dialectcontinuum: Astringofdialectsmaybemutuallyintelligible,butnottransitive• E.g.Dutch-Germandialectcontinuum

– It’samatterofdegree,noclear-cutintelligibilitytest

• There’snosuchthingas“languages”;“Dialects”areallthereis.– Onedialectdefinedas“standard”language• E.g.Tokyodialectas“Japanese”

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NumberstoKnow:Howmanylanguagesintheworld?

• Conservativeestimate:6000– Peakofdiversity:10,000-15,000(~15,000BCE)

• SkeweddistributionPopulationrange #ofLanguages Percentageof

worldpopulation

100,000,000+ 8 40%

10,000,000-99,999,999 80 39%

1,000,000-9,999,999 305 14%

100,000-999,999 93 4%

10,000-99,999 1,811 0.9%

1,000-9,999 1,978 0.1%

100-999 1,062 0.007%

1-99 475 0.0002%

Source:Ethnologue - http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/status5

Pauseandthinkaboutthisforabit

WhatIsayherecanbeexpressedequivalentlyin6000otherways,usingcompletelydifferentwordsandgrammar!

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Numberstoknow:Largestlanguageby#ofspeaker

Language #ofL1Speakers (inmillions)

Chinese 1,197

Spanish 414

English 335

Hindi 260

Arabic 237

Portuguese 203

Bengali 193

Russian 167

Japanese 122

Javanese 84

Source:Ethnologue - http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/status7

Numberstoknow:Whendidlanguagearise?

200,000yearsago:Anatomicallymodernhumans

50,000yearsago:Behaviorial ModernityLanguageenablescooperation&gossipà largersocialgroups

12,000yearsago:AgriculturalRevolutionDisclaimer:Datesareinexact.I’mnotanexpertandthereappearstobenodefinitiveanswer.

Languagearosehere?Orhere?

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AndisthereaLanguageInstinct?

Outline


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Changeisthecauseofdiversity

• ChangebyNaturalEvolution– Slightdifferencesinspeaking(usuallyduetoLaziness)leadstolargedifferencesaftergenerations

– E.g.Soundchange,re-bracketing,semanticshift

• ChangebyContact(ArealEffect)– Borrowingofphonology,lexicon,andgrammarfromneighboringlanguages• E.g.BalkanSprachbund:Albanian,Greek,Romanian,Bulgarian,Macedonian

à verb-Not-verb,post-article,genitive&dativemerger

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Soundchange

• Principleofleasteffort, e.g.:– “Godbewithyou”à Godb’wyà Goodbye– Lossofcase-endingsinLatinà NecessityofwordorderforgrammaticalfunctioninEnglish

– Loss/mergerofconsonantsinOldChineseàNecessityofTones

• Generalchange,e.g.:– GreatVowelShift(1350-1700,England)• “bite”bi:t à baIt;“beet”:be:tà bi:t

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ExtensionofGrammaticalPatternsduetosoundchange

• Latinhadmultiplepluralrules:– sorōrēs “sisters”– fēminaà fēminae “women”– dominusà domini “master”

• InFrench,onlyonepluralendingwasleftduetosounderosion,so-swasextended

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MorphologicalTypeChange

13From:http://languagesoftheworld.info/historical-linguistics/more-on-word-order-morphological-types-and-historical-change.html

Lossofinflection,e.g.OldEnglishàModernEnglish

Morphemesfuse

Wordsbecomegrammaticalized asaffixes

Outline


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OurItinerary

• I’llintroducevariouslanguagefamilieswhilewetourtheworld– Note:Don’tconfusegeographicalandgeneticclassification;e.g.LanguagesinEurasia!=Indo-Europeanlanguages

• Foreachlanguagefamily,I’llpointoutsomeinterestingphenomenaortrivia– Warning1:Thesephenomenaarebynomeansuniquetothelanguageunderdiscussion.Mayappearelsewhere.

– Warning2:Duetotimelimitation,notallimportantphenomenawillbediscussed.Ourtouris走馬看花 style:“viewingtheflowerswhileridingafasthorse”

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Indo-EuropeanLanguageFamily

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages 16

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Indo-European

Germanic:English,German,Swedish,etc.

Italic:Italian,French,Spanish,Romanian,etc.

Balto-Slavic:Lithuanian,Russian,Polish,Czech,etc.

Hellenic: Greek

Albanian:Albanian

Celtic:Gaelic,Scottish

Armenian:Armenian

Indo-Iranian: Farsi,Hindi,Bengali,Marathi,etc.

DiscoveryoftheIndo-EuropeanFamily1796:SirWilliamJones noticedsimilaritybetweenSanskrit&Latin

ComparativeReconstruction:- Cognatesfrombasicvocabulary

(bodyparts,kinship,nature)- Identifypatternsofsound

change&correspondence

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From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_(philologist)

1 2 3

Irish aon do tri

Greek hen duo treis

Latin unus duo tres

Italian uno due tre

French un deux trois

German einz zwei drei

Swedish en tva tre

Russian odin dva tri

Bengali ek dvi tri

Persian yak do se

ProtoIE? Hoi-no? duwo?

trei?

Turkish bir iki üc

Hebrew ‘exad šnaim šlosa

NotIE

IE

Finno-UgricFamily:Finnish,Hungarian,Estonian,etc.

19From:http://finno-ugric.com

Geographicdiscontinuityisinteresting:- Urals:probablehomeland- Finnic branchwaslargerbutencroachmentbySlavic- HungarianbranchduetoMagyarmigration(800CE)

Finno-Ugric:AgglutinativeMorphology14casesinEstonian,15casesinFinnish,21casesinHungarian:

Note:manyoftheseareencodedbyprepositionsinIndo-Europeanlanguages(average6cases)

Case HungarianWord Gloss

Nominative hajó ship[subject]

Accusative hajó-t ship[object]

Inessive hajó-ban inaship

Elative hajó-ból outofaship

Illative hajó-ba intoaship

Superessive hajó-n onaship

Delative hajó-ról aboutaship

Sublative hajó-ra ontoaship

Adessive hajó-nál byaship

Ablative hajó-tól fromaship

…

Basque

• Unrelatedtoanyotherlanguage?• Ergative-absolutive casesystem

TransitiveSentenceIntransitiveSentenceAgentPatientSubjectNominativeAccusativeNominative

TransitiveSentence IntransitiveSentenceAgentPatientSubjectErgativeAbsolutive Absolutive

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From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language

DravidianLanguageFamily

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DistinctfromIndo-EuropeaninnorthernIndiaSomeCharacteristics:- RigidSOVwordorder- Nounsgender:“rational”(referstohuman,deity)vs.“irrational”(referstochildren,animal,objects)

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_languages

LanguagesoftheCaucusesregion

Manydifferentlanguagefamiliesinthissmallarea!

Trivia:Chechenhas40-60consonants,~44vowels

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Caucasus

AltaicLanguageFamily(?)

• Macro-familyconsistingofpossiblyTurkic,Mongolic,Tungustic– Korean&Japanese?– Similaritiesduetogeneticsorcontact?

24From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altaic_languages

VowelHarmonyinTurkic

• Turkic:Turkish,Uzbek,Kazakh,Dolgan,etc.• VowelHarmony:– long-distanceassimilationwherevowelsbecomesimilaracrossinterveningconsonantsinsomeway

– E.g.back/front&rounded/unroundedharmonizationinTurkish:

Türkiye’dir “itisTurkey”kapıdır “itisthedor”gündür “itistheday”paltodur “itisthecoat”

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SemiticLanguageFamily:Hebrew,Arabicdialects,Aramaic,Amharic,etc.

26From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages

Non-concatenative morphologyinSemitic(e.g.Arabic)

• Root:2-4consonant;Template:vowelsin-between• ktb "write"(asverb)

ti-ktib "shewrites"(prefixti- means"she",presentformis"- - i -")

katab-it"shewrote"(suffix-itmeans"she","pastformis"- a- a-")

kaatib "writing"(presentparticiple"- aa - i -”)

ma-ktuub "written”(pastparticiple"- - uu -")

• ktb "book"(asnoun)kitaab:(- i - aa – singular)kutub:(- u- u– plural)

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LanguagesinSub-SaharanAfrica

• Nilo-Saharan• Niger-Congo• Khoisan

Characteristics:- Manyaretonal,havelargesoundinventoriesand“exotic”sounds,e.g.implosives,clicks- Largenounclasses(Shona:20)

28From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Africa

Sino-TibetanLanguageFamily

Siniticbranch:

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Tibetanbranch:- e.g.Tibetan,Burmese

Characteristics:- Tone- Isolatingmorphology- NounClassifiers

numeral-classifier-nouninMandarinnoun-numeral-classifierinBurmese

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language

From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austroasiatic_languagesFrom:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai–Kadai_languages

Tai-Kadai Familye.g.Thai– tone(5),isolating,nounclassifier

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Austro-AsiaticFamilye.g.Vietnamese– tone(6),isolating,nounclassifier,30%vocabviaChinesee.g.Munda – notone,agglutinative

Likelyarealeffects

AustronesianLanguages• Formosanbranch:~20languagesinTaiwan(manyendangered)• Malayo-Polynesianbranch:

– West:Javanese,Sundanese,Malay,Indonesian,Tagalog,Malagasy,etc.– East:Hawaiian,Maori,Fijian,etc.

31From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_languages

AmazingSeafarers!!

Characteristics:- Ergative-Absolutive- Agglutinativemorphology- Smallsoundinventory:(13phonemeinHawaiian)- SomehaveVOS,VSOorder- Inclusive/Exclusive1st personpronoun:“we”includeshearer?- Reduplication

Reduplication

Soundrepetitionwithinawordforsemanticorgrammaticalpurposee.g.Tagalog:

sulat “write”à susulat “willwrite”hanap “seek”à hahanap “willseek”lakad “walk”à lalakad “willwalk”

e.g.Indoneasian:anak “child”à anak anak “allsortsofchildren”oraN “man”à oraN oraN “allsortsofmen”

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LanguagesinPapuaNewGuinea:• 800+languages!(1languageper200-900km2)• Diversityduetomountains(naturalbarriers)andtribalsociety(culturalbarriers)

• Tok Pisin (oneoftheofficiallanguages):– PidginarosefromcontactbetweenEnglish&locals– PidginbecomescreolewhenchildrenlearnitasL1– LexiconismostlyfromEnglish.Syntaxisfromwhere?

LanguagesinAustralia:• 270languages,manynearextinction• Trivia- NounclassesinDyirbal:

I:masculine&animate;II:feminine,fire,fighting;III:alltreeswithediblefruit;IV:everythingelse

LanguagesofAmerica(thereareattemptstogroupthemintomacro-families,butcontroversial)

34From:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_languages_of_the_Americas

SomeInterestingPhenomena• MultipleArgumentAgreement inMohawk:– Verbnotonlyagreeswithsubjectbutalsoobject

• E.g.shako- prefix:agreementw/3rd personsubjectand3rdpersonobject;ra-:agreementwithjust3rd personsubject

– Nounincorporation:nounrootbecomespartoftheverb,andonelessargumenttoagreewith:• 3words:Wa’-k-hniui-’(1sg-subj-BUY)ne (part)ka-nakt-a’(prefix-BED-suffix)à 1word:Wa’-ke-nakta-hninu-’.

• Three-waycasemarkinginNezPerce:– Subjectsofintransitives,subjectsoftransitives,objectsoftransitivesà allgetdifferentcase

• OVSwordorder inCarib• Evidentialmarker inMakah 35

Outline


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LinguisticUniversalsandTypology

• Typology:classifieslanguageandaimstodescribecommonpropertiesanddiversity

• E.g.:ThefollowingWordOrdersarecommon.– SOV:Japanese,Tamil,Turkish(565languagesinwals.info)– SVO:Chinese,English,Fula (488languagesinwals.info)– VSO:Arabic,Tongan,Welsh(95languagesinwals.info)

• WhysofewVOS,OVS,OSV(total<5%)?– Hypothesis:SubjectstendtoprecedeObjects

• Why?Maybe:AgentbeforePatient=betterinfoflow– Note:somelanguageshaveV2ornodominantorder

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TypologicalGeneralizations

• SOVtendencies:– havepostpositions– genitive-noun,etc.

• Analyticalmorphologytendencies:– mono-syllablewords– useoftones– useoffunctionwords– relativefixedwordorder

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• SVOtendencies:– haveprepositions– noun-genitive,etc.

• Syntheticmorphologytendencies:– poly-syllablewords– nouseoftones– fewerfunctionwords– relativefreewordorder

CheckoutWorldAtlasofLanguageStructures(http://wals.info) formore!

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IanMaddieson.2013.VowelQualityInventories.In:Dryer,MatthewS.&Haspelmath,Martin(eds.)TheWorldAtlasofLanguageStructuresOnline.Leipzig:MaxPlanckInstituteforEvolutionaryAnthropology.

VOWELQUALITYINVENTORY


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Greville G.Corbett.2013.NumberofGenders.In:Dryer,MatthewS.&Haspelmath,Martin(eds.)TheWorldAtlasofLanguageStructuresOnline.Leipzig:MaxPlanckInstituteforEvolutionaryAnthropology.

NUMBEROFGENDERS


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MatthewS.Dryer.2013.DefiniteArticles.In:Dryer,MatthewS.&Haspelmath,Martin(eds.)TheWorldAtlasofLanguageStructuresOnline.Leipzig:MaxPlanckInstituteforEvolutionaryAnthropology.

DEFINITEARTICLES

Summary


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GoodReferences• BernardComrie (Ed.)(2009)TheWorld’sMajorLanguages,

2nd ed.NewYork,NY:Routledge• Asya Pereltsvaig (2012)LanguageoftheWorld:An

Introduction.CambridgeUniv.Press• JohnMcWhorter(2001)ThePowerofBabel.HarperCollins

Press• MatthewDryer&MartinHaspelmath (Eds.)(2013)The

WorldAtlasofLanguageStructuresOnline.Leipzig:MaxPlanckInstituteforEvolutionaryAnthropology.(Availableonline:http://wals.in)

• BernardComrie,StephenMatthews,MariaPolinsky (Eds.)(1998)TheAtlasofLanguages.BloomsburyPublishing

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languages of the world · 2019-12-13 · our itinerary •i’ll introduce various language...

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