1. Language in Asia
Bill Baxter
29 October 2007

2. Overview
Actually, not all of Asia (mostly, South, Southeast, and East)
That excludes (for example) Iraq, Iran, Asian part of Russia…
So many languages, so little time

3. Map of Southern Asia

4. Main topics Spoken language ≠ written language Spoken language in Asia
Written language in Asia
Language and history
Europe discovers the languages of Asia

5. Spoken vs. written language
Spoken language is primary; written language is secondary
Everybody talks (almost); only some write. Speech is built into our biology; writing isn’t.
Many spoken languages have no written form.
Writing is only ~ 5,000 years old; spoken language is probably much older (maybe 40, ,000 years old?).
The same language can be written with different scripts; different languages can be written with the same script. (Languages may look alike but sound very different, and vice versa)

6. Each dot represents a (spoken) language:
Source: October 2005

7. Families of (spoken) languages
Descended from a common ancestral language
Ex. 1: Romance languages (47, including French, Spanish, Italian), descended from Latin (attested)
Ex. 2: Germanic languages (53, including German, Dutch, English, Swedish), descended from “Proto-Germanic” (not attested, but can be reconstructed from the daughter languages)

8. The Indo-European family (449)
Includes most languages of Europe, but also Indo-Iranian.

9. Selected language families of Asia (1)
Indo-Iranian branch of IE : Indic (= Indo-Aryan, 219) and Iranian languages (87)
Dravidian (73): Brahui (in Pakistan); Tamil (in India and Sri Lanka), Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, etc.)
‘Altaic’ (66): Turkic (40), Mongolian (14), Tungusic (12; = ‘Manchu-Tungus’ = ‘Tungus-Manchu’) in Northern Asia
Japanese, Korean (probably related to each other, maybe part of Altaic
(continued…)

10. Language families of Asia (2)
Sino-Tibetan (403): Chinese (14), Tibetan (53), Burmese, LOTS of minority languages
Austronesian (1268) (‘Southern islands’): Malay/Indonesian, LOTS of minority languages
may include Tai-Kadai (76) (Thai, Lao; and related languages, mostly in China)
Hmong-Mien = Miao-Yao (35): minority languages in China and SE Asia.
Austroasiatic (169) (‘Southern Asian’): Vietnamese, Khmer = Cambodian, LOTS of minority languages in SE Asia, some in India.

11. Indo-Iranian: Iranian branch

12. Languages of India (Indo-Iranian and others)
Source:
© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

13. Languages of India (Dravidian)
Source:
© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

14. Languages of India (Sino-Tibetan)
Source:
© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

15. The Altaic family (controversial)
Source: 25 Oct 2005

16. The Turkic family (part of Altaic?)

17. Language families of Asia (2)
Sino-Tibetan (403): Chinese (14), Tibetan (53), Burmese, LOTS of minority languages
Austronesian (1268) (‘Southern islands’): Malay/Indonesian, LOTS of minority languages
may include Tai-Kadai (76) (Thai, Lao; and related languages, mostly in China)
Hmong-Mien = Miao-Yao (35): minority languages in China and SE Asia.
Austroasiatic (169) (‘Southern Asian’): Vietnamese, Khmer = Cambodian, LOTS of minority languages in SE Asia, some in India.

18. The Sino-Tibetan family

19. The Austronesian family

20. Tai-Kadai
Source: Oct 2005

21. Hmong-Mien (= “Miao-Yao”)
Source: 29 Oct 2007

22. Language groups in China

23. The Austroasiatic family

24. How are language families identified?
Shared items of basic vocabulary (items not likely to be borrowed), showing regular sound correspondences.
Where possible, shared morphology (prefixes, suffixes, etc., with grammatical functions)
Members of the same family may look very different because of the accumulation of changes over time; and languages can be structurally similar without belonging to the same family.

25. Tagalog and Malay (~ Indonesian): some basic vocabulary1
BLOOD
dugo
darah 17
MOON
buwan
bulan 2
BONE
buto
tulang 18
NAME
ngalan
nama 3
DIE
param
mati 19
NEW
bago
baru 4
DOG
aso
anjing 20
ONE
isa
esa 5
EAR
tenga
telinga 21
SALT
asin 6
EGG
itlog
telur 22
STONE
bato
batu 7
EYE
mata 23
SUN
araw
matahari 8
FIRE
apoy
api 24
TAIL
buntot
ekor 9
FISH
isda
ikan 25
THIS
ito, iri
ini 10
FULL
puno
penuh 26
TONGUE
dila
lidah 11
GIVE
bigay
kasi 27
TOOTH
ngipin
gigi 12
HAND
kamay
tangan 28
TWO
dalawa
dua 13
HORN
sungay
tanduk 29
WATER
tubig
air 14
I, ME
alp
aku 30
WIND (n.)
hangin
angin 15
KNOW
alam
kenal, tahu 31
YEAR
taon
tahun 16
LOUSE
kuto
kutu 32
YOU (sg.)
ikaw
awak

26. Tagalog and Malay (similar words)1
BLOOD
dugóq
darah 17
MOON
buwan
bulan 2
BONE
buto
tulang 18
NAME
ngalan
nama 3
DIE
patáy
mati 19
NEW
bago
baru 4
DOG
áso
anjing 20
ONE
isa
esa 5
EAR
taqinga
telinga 21
SALT
asin 6
EGG
itlog
telur 22
STONE
bato
batu 7
EYE
mata 23
SUN
araw
matahari 8
FIRE
apóy
api 24
TAIL
buntot
ekor 9
FISH
isdáq
ikan 25
THIS
ito, iri
ini 10
FULL
puno
penuh 26
TONGUE
dila
lidah 11
GIVE
bigay
kasi 27
TOOTH
ngipin
gigi 12
HAND
kamáy
tangan 28
TWO
dalawa
dua 13
HORN
sungay
tanduk 29
WATER
tubig
air 14
I, ME
ako
aku 30
WIND (n.)
hangin
angin 15
KNOW
alam [< Arabic]
kenal, tahu 31
YEAR
taqón
tahun 16
LOUSE
kuto
kutu
YOU (sg.)
ikaw
awak

27. Regular sound correspondences
Tagalog /t/ = Malay /t/:
Tagalog
Malay 1
EGG
itlog
telur 2
DIE
mata 3
EYE
bigat
berat 4
HEAVY 5
YEAR
taqón
léhér 6
TO SLEEP
tulug
tahun

28. Regular sound correspondences
Tagalog /g/ = Malay /r/:
Tagalog
Malay 1
EGG
itlog
telur 2
SAND
pasig
pasir 3
HEAVY
bigat
berat 4
NEW
bago
baru 5
NECK
liqig
léhér 6
TO SLEEP
tulug
tidur

29. Tone languages (Chinese & others)
The same consonants and vowels, pronounced with different pitch contours or tunes, indicate different words (not just different emotional attitudes)
Tone languages include
the various ‘dialects’ of Chinese
some (not all) other Sino-Tibetan languages
Vietnamese
Kra-Dai languages (including Thai)
Hmong-Mien languages

30. Tones in Mandarin Chinese
妈 (媽) mā ‘mother’

麻 (麻) má ‘hemp’

马 (馬) mǎ ‘horse’

骂 (駡) mà ‘scold, attack verbally’

吗 (嗎) ma (sentence-final particle indicating a yes-no question)
(妈 is the simplified character, 媽 is the traditional
character.)

31. An example sentence 妈骂马;马骂妈吗? 媽駡馬;馬罵媽嗎? Mā mà mǎ; mǎ mà mā ma?
妈骂马;马骂妈吗?

媽駡馬;馬罵媽嗎?

Mā mà mǎ; mǎ mà mā ma?

‘Mother scolds the horse; does the horse scold Mother?’

32. Origins of writing in eastern Asia
Chinese writing (begins ~13th century BCE): spreads to Korea, Japan, Vietnam
Alphabetic systems (ultimately traceable to the Aramaic version of the Semitic alphabet):
Early (Brahmi and other central Asian scripts)
Later (Arabic alphabet adapted for Persian, Urdu, etc.)
New scripts influenced by older ones
Chinese-like scripts invented from scratch
Korean Hangeul alphabet (invented from scratch)

33. Stages in the development of Chinese writing:
Pottery markings (~ 3000 B.C.E.?)
‘Oracle bones’ (13th-11th c. B.C.E.)
Inscriptions on bronze vessels (13th-3d c. B.C.E.)
Brush and ink on bamboo or silk (rag paper invented ~ 105 C.E.); printing
Script reform (Japan after 1945; China from 1950s): ‘simplified’ characters (fewer variant characters, fewer strokes in each character)
Computer fonts and encodings

34. Oracle bones (turtle plastron)

35. Máo gōng dǐng 毛公鼎, ca. 900 BCE (Taipei, Former Palace Museum)

36. Shāng 商 dynasty bronze inscription, ~1100 BCE
作父丁寶尊彝
‘ made [for] Father Dīng [this] precious treasured vessel’

37. A Chinese typewriter (1970’s)

38. Asahi Shimbun on the World Series (today)
Ｒソックスが４ﾑ３で勝利　３年ぶり７度目の世界王者2007年10月29日13時11分　米大リーグのワールドシリーズ（４戦先勝制）第４戦、レッドソックス（ア・リーグ）対ロッキーズ（ナ・リーグ）戦が２８日（日本時間２９日）、コロラド州のデンバーであり、松坂と岡島が所属するレッドソックスが、ロッキーズに４ﾑ３で４連勝し、３年ぶり７度目のワールドチャンピオンに輝いた。
松井 稼頭央
MATSUI Kazuō

39. Chosun Ilbo on the World Series (2005)
[weol.deu.si.ri.jeu] si.ka.go hwa.i.teu sak.seu, ...