Other tongues: the stunning lingual diversity of India

Post by Dingbat
Other tongues: the stunning lingual diversity of India
A wealth of linguistic richness exists outside what are called the official languages of India ...
... continued at
http://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/z0svnlK5dNq6mXuCwtkIFO/Other-tongues-the-stunning-lingual-diversity-of-India.html
I say: I have read that Indonesia has even more languages than India, many
spoken by just one village or just one tribe.

It's good to see recognition of the linguistic diversity of India (or
any other country) beyond the official list.

This page gives figures for 20 countries with the highest language numbers:

http://www.vistawide.com/languages/20_countries_most_languages.htm

It's also interesting to compare language totals with the overall
population, which gives a rather different ordering:

Languages per million population

Vanuatu 575
Papua New Guinea 149
Cameroon 17.5
Australia 13.8
Chad 13.5
Malaysia 6.4
Nepal 4.5
Canada 4.4
Nigeria 4
DR Congo 3.6
Tanzania 3.55
Sudan 3.35
Indonesia 3
Mexico 2.8
Philippines 2.1
Brazil 1.1
USA 1
Russia 0.9
India 0.4
China 0.2

Peter T. Daniels

2017-11-04 11:29:21 UTC

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

DKleinecke

2017-11-04 16:46:28 UTC

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

It's easy to hear other languages than English - many of
them - spoken in the US.

Peter T. Daniels

2017-11-04 22:17:11 UTC

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

It's easy to hear other languages than English - many of
them - spoken in the US.

This morning I went to a talk by John Bailyn (Stony Brook) in which he mentioned
this article of his in which he statistically investigated the "differences"
between "Serbian" and "Croatian," indubitably two languages (because their
governments say so) that are indistinguishable. Unfortunately the article doesn't
happen to be freely available:

"To what degree are Croatian and Serbian the same language?: Evidence from a translation study"
JF Bailyn - Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 2010 - muse.jhu.edu
This article reports on the results of an experimental translation study conducted in 2008 in
which 16 adult native speakers of the Croatian variant of Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS)
were asked to translate nine texts from the Serbian BCS variant into their native Croatian

Daud Deden

2017-11-07 22:10:09 UTC

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

It's easy to hear other languages than English - many of
them - spoken in the US.

This morning I went to a talk by John Bailyn (Stony Brook) in which he mentioned
this article of his in which he statistically investigated the "differences"
between "Serbian" and "Croatian," indubitably two languages (because their
governments say so) that are indistinguishable. Unfortunately the article doesn't
"To what degree are Croatian and Serbian the same language?: Evidence from a translation study"
JF Bailyn - Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 2010 - muse.jhu.edu
This article reports on the results of an experimental translation study conducted in 2008 in
which 16 adult native speakers of the Croatian variant of Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS)
were asked to translate nine texts from the Serbian BCS variant into their native Croatian

The words for mother and housekeeper in Serbian and Croatian (I think) have different roots, and word for dog differ, but overall just minor differences AFAIK.

Mścisław Wojna-Bojewski

2017-11-12 20:40:47 UTC

Post by Daud Deden
The words for mother and housekeeper in Serbian and Croatian (I think) have different roots, and word for dog differ, but overall just minor differences AFAIK.

Where did you get this from? Dog is pas in both Serbian and Croatian.

Daud Deden

2017-11-13 20:22:29 UTC

Post by MÅcisÅaw Wojna-Bojewski

Post by Daud Deden
The words for mother and housekeeper in Serbian and Croatian (I think) have different roots, and word for dog differ, but overall just minor differences AFAIK.

Where did you get this from? Dog is pas in both Serbian and Croatian.

MP: "Serbs say "ker" for dog. Both, Croats and Serbs say "pas" for dog (official language). In Zagreb, locally, we say "cucak" [tsutsak] for dog."

Peter T. Daniels

2017-11-13 21:16:58 UTC

Post by MÅcisÅaw Wojna-Bojewski

Post by Daud Deden

Post by Daud Deden
The words for mother and housekeeper in Serbian and Croatian (I think) have different roots, and word for dog differ, but overall just minor differences AFAIK.

Where did you get this from? Dog is pas in both Serbian and Croatian.

MP: "Serbs say "ker" for dog. Both, Croats and Serbs say "pas" for dog (official language). In Zagreb, locally, we say "cucak" [tsutsak] for dog."

What the hell is "MP"?

If you had bothered to look at the article by Bailyn, you'd know exactly what
percentage of variant vocabulary there is.

Vocabulary, however, is not determinative of language relationships. The best
evidence is shared innovative suppletion.

Daud Deden

2017-11-13 22:01:38 UTC

Post by MÅcisÅaw Wojna-Bojewski

Post by Daud Deden

Post by Daud Deden
The words for mother and housekeeper in Serbian and Croatian (I think) have different roots, and word for dog differ, but overall just minor differences AFAIK.

Where did you get this from? Dog is pas in both Serbian and Croatian.

MP: "Serbs say "ker" for dog. Both, Croats and Serbs say "pas" for dog (official language). In Zagreb, locally, we say "cucak" [tsutsak] for dog."

What the hell is "MP"?

A buddy who knows.

Post by Peter T. Daniels
If you had bothered to look at the article by Bailyn, you'd know exactly what
percentage of variant vocabulary there is.

"Exactly" is not in my interest. Language is fluid, though usually slow-flowing, like glass.

Post by Peter T. Daniels
Vocabulary, however, is not determinative of language relationships. The best
evidence is shared innovative suppletion.

Neo-etymologically, perhaps, but all language began with vocabulary, so it is the best measure over-all.

Yusuf B Gursey

2017-11-13 03:03:57 UTC

Post by Dingbat
Other tongues: the stunning lingual diversity of India
A wealth of linguistic richness exists outside what are called the
official languages of India ... ... continued at
http://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/z0svnlK5dNq6mXuCwtkIFO/Other-tongues-the-stunning-lingual-diversity-of-India.html
I say: I have read that Indonesia has even more languages than India, many
spoken by just one village or just one tribe.

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

It's easy to hear other languages than English - many of
them - spoken in the US.

This morning I went to a talk by John Bailyn (Stony Brook) in which he
mentioned this article of his in which he statistically investigated the
"differences" between "Serbian" and "Croatian," indubitably two languages
(because their governments say so) that are indistinguishable. Unfortunately
"To what degree are Croatian and Serbian the same language?: Evidence from a
translation study" JF Bailyn - Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 2010 -
muse.jhu.edu This article reports on the results of an experimental
translation study conducted in 2008 in which 16 adult native speakers of the

Different people will always translate any substantial text
differently.

Post by Peter T. Daniels
Croatian variant of Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS) were asked to translate
nine texts from the Serbian BCS variant into their native Croatian

Peter T. Daniels

2017-11-13 04:06:43 UTC

Post by Yusuf B Gursey

Post by Dingbat
Other tongues: the stunning lingual diversity of India
A wealth of linguistic richness exists outside what are called the
official languages of India ... ... continued at
http://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/z0svnlK5dNq6mXuCwtkIFO/Other-tongues-the-stunning-lingual-diversity-of-India.html
I say: I have read that Indonesia has even more languages than India, many
spoken by just one village or just one tribe.

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

It's easy to hear other languages than English - many of
them - spoken in the US.

This morning I went to a talk by John Bailyn (Stony Brook) in which he
mentioned this article of his in which he statistically investigated the
"differences" between "Serbian" and "Croatian," indubitably two languages
(because their governments say so) that are indistinguishable. Unfortunately
"To what degree are Croatian and Serbian the same language?: Evidence from a
translation study" JF Bailyn - Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 2010 -
muse.jhu.edu This article reports on the results of an experimental
translation study conducted in 2008 in which 16 adult native speakers of the

Different people will always translate any substantial text
differently.

That's not the question.

The source and target languages are essentially identical.

Post by Yusuf B Gursey

Post by Peter T. Daniels
Croatian variant of Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS) were asked to translate
nine texts from the Serbian BCS variant into their native Croatian

Yusuf B Gursey

2017-11-13 03:36:54 UTC

Post by Dingbat
Other tongues: the stunning lingual diversity of India
A wealth of linguistic richness exists outside what are called the
official languages of India ... ... continued at
http://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/z0svnlK5dNq6mXuCwtkIFO/Other-tongues-the-stunning-lingual-diversity-of-India.html
I say: I have read that Indonesia has even more languages than India, many
spoken by just one village or just one tribe.

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

It's easy to hear other languages than English - many of
them - spoken in the US.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24600116.pdf

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/412639/pdf

Post by Peter T. Daniels
"To what degree are Croatian and Serbian the same language?: Evidence from a
translation study" JF Bailyn - Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 2010 -
muse.jhu.edu This article reports on the results of an experimental
translation study conducted in 2008 in which 16 adult native speakers of the
Croatian variant of Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS) were asked to translate
nine texts from the Serbian BCS variant into their native Croatian

Daud Deden

2017-11-07 22:21:38 UTC

"A language" is a political, not a linguistic, notion.

Yes. language/lengua-tongue/*tluaxyua ~ di.a.lect.ura ~ ***@Malay: tongue

In Paleo-etymology, there's one language with one tap root. Putting branches into families etc. taxonomically is a matter of convenience & convention.

Joseph C. Fineman

2017-11-04 21:42:54 UTC