The languages of Japan

Thanks to David Paul (LinkedIn) for pointing out a great post by Keiko Tanaka (GlobalVoices) about endangered languages in Japan, in which she interviewed Byron Fija (official site).

• Japan's Endangered Languages Still Considered Mere Dialects (GlobalVoices, 2014.03.01).

Tanaka's interview shed light on a number of issues related to definitions of and attitudes towards those languages in Japan, in particular, the tagging of a group of them, Ryukyuan languages, as dialects. The interview post included a detailed map of the Ryukyuan languages by Fija, with transliterations by Tanaka. The lines across the East China Sea in the map as well as the text of the interview highlighted lack of homogeneity among the languages of Japan.

To lean in and round up the discussion, I'd like to share a mashup of notes about disputed higher level classifications of Japanese and arguably related languages that I'd sent to a student working on a graduation paper last year. Here is the mashup:

I used the DigitalColor Meter app (a Mac app.) to check the area north and east of Korea and Japan [in a map from Before It's News, 2013], both of which were color-coded as isolates. Though it was [coded] the same color, the area to the NE of Korea and Japan may actually be a Yupik branch of Eskimo-Aleut (Wikipedia, Eskimo-Aleut languages, ¶4).

(close-up from Before It's News, 2013)

That same area NE of Korea and Japan is color-coded as Paleo-Siberian in another map (Wikipedia, Primary Human Language Families Map). The Primary Human Language Families Map still coded Korean as an isolate, but coded Japonic as a separate family of languages, one which may include Ryukyuan languages (Lewis, 2013).

There is plenty of controversy about relationships among Japanese, Korean, and other languages, for instance: "According to its [Altaic's] proponents, Altaic is a language family comprising at least Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic" (Wikipedia, Classification of Japonic, Altaic hypothesis, ¶1). 

The idea of a Japanese-Korean relationship overlaps the extended form of the Altaic hypothesis..., but not all scholars who argue for one also argue for the other. For example, Samuel Martin, who was a major advocate of a Japanese-Korean relationship, only provided cautious support to the inclusion of these languages in Altaic, and Talat Tekin, an Altaicist, includes Korean, but not Japanese, in Altaic....  

 (Wikipedia, Classification of Japonic, Korean hypothesis, ¶6).

Pereltsvaig (2012) summed up controversy about an Altaic language family, suggesting similarities [among those languages] might be due to borrowing rather than genetic[, but the matter is by no means resolved]. Lewis (2013) reexamined related issues.

…

References
Lewis, Martin W. (2013). Altaic and Related Languages. GeoCurrents. Retrieved from http://www.geocurrents.info/cultural-geography/linguistic-geography/altaic-and-related-languages 

Pereltsvaig, Asya. (2012). The Altaic family controversy. GeoCurrents. Retrieved from http://www.geocurrents.info/place/russia-ukraine-and-caucasus/siberia/the-altaic-family-controversy

(pab, personal correspondence, 2013.12.14)

Viewed from both up and down the human language family tree, it seems clear that the languages of Japan are neither homogeneous nor unique. Hopefully we'll achieve a modicum of certainty before the majority of those languages in the far reaches of Japan die out completely.

[501 words]

European etymology maps of common words

Check out this colorful album!

[Sorry, the embedding code from Europe etymology maps 1 - Imgur doesn't seem to work here; try viewing it at the source.] Album source: http://imgur.com/a/iVK8a/all

[30 words]

Maps (not) showing radiation in Japan

The map found with the first URL below displays "...[r]ealtime radiation data collected via the System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information (SPEEDI)[,]" according to a March 19, 2011 01:00 (JST) update in the sidebar, which equates "Under Survey" (調整中) to "censored."

Japan map of Japan Radiation Maximum by Prefecture by Do,Ken,To,Fu - TargetMap 

• http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870

Less detail appears on top-level maps prepared by the apparent data source (SPEEDI):

Disaster Prevention and Nuclear Safety Network for Nuclear Environment/ English Top Page

• http://www.bousai.ne.jp/eng/

環境防災Ｎネットホームページ

• http://www.bousai.ne.jp/vis/index.php (Japanese)
• Miyagi: 調整中
• http://www.bousai.ne.jp/vis/jichitai/miyagi/index.html
• Fukushima: 調整中
• http://www.bousai.ne.jp/vis/jichitai/fukushima/index.html
• Ibaraki: http://www.bousai.ne.jp/vis/jichitai/ibaraki/
• Kanagawa: 
• http://www.bousai.ne.jp/vis/jichitai/kanagawa/
• The nearest points to central Tokyo that appear to have data now are to the south, in Kawazaki-ku, south of the Tama River.

Aren't Otters Extraordinarily Cute?

Though I missed it by a week, last week was "the [20th] anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill" (personal correspondence, 2009.03.24).

A family member and friend sent me that picture of two small victims probably no longer inhabiting our planet. Though otters' life-spans may reach 20 years, that wouldn't be the case for those unlucky ones, not even ten years later (Most Exxon Valdez otters sent to zoos are dead, Juneau Empire, 1999.03.30). Otter aren't the only ill-fortuned ones.

Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, pockets of oil — an estimated 16,000 gallons — remain buried in small portions of the intertidal zone. ... As the 20th anniversary of the spill arrives, hopes are fading for a natural recovery of herring.

(Hal Bernton, Exxon Valdez oil-spill recovery still is work in progress, 20 years later, The Seattle Times, 2009.03.24)

On behalf of her otter buddies, my friend asked me to do "one thing out of the ordinary ... that eliminates the use of oil and gas ... on the planet." If you're reading this post, I'm asking you to do more of the same.


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The World is a Mosaic!

AppAppeals Map of theWorld 2.0, with hot-linked graphics in the original (World Mosaic Created from 1001 Web 2.0 Logos):

Source: http://media.appappeal.com/map/appappeal-mosaic2.png

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