1968 shaded relief map of Africa (with political and language map insets)
1968 shaded relief map of Africa (with political and language map insets)
‘I have never seen this alignment before!’–tonwood
Bavarian dialects
Distribution of Karen languages
Distribution of Karen languages
‘Man, Karens must really hate coastlines’–NovaTabarca
Linguistic Stocks of American Indians North of Mexico (1881)
Linguistic Stocks of American Indians North of Mexico (1881) - by J.W. Powell
‘So interesting that the Siouan languages form a general outline of the Louisiana Purchase’–quackchewy
Languages of Afghanistan
Languages of Afghanistan
‘The little cluster of languages like Waigali in the east is actually an entirely separate third branch of Indo-Iranian, separate to Indo-Aryan and Iranian’–SPANlA
1881 language [Gaelic] map of the British Isles
1881 language [Gaelic] map of the British Isles
How about today? How’re the celtic languages doing? How effective are the efforts to revive them? …. Welsh is doing well, it’s taught in most [if not all] Welsh schools aswell as some English schools. If you go to Northern Wales you hear spoken Welsh pretty commonly and all Welsh roadsigns are Bilingual by law.
Manx is also having a successful revival, with widespread education and recognition. Despite the Isle of Man’s relatively small size there are Manx radio stations and a school which teaches mostly in Manx. Considering the language was nearly dead 50 years ago this is brilliant to see.
Cornish is less successful, it is taught in clubs and societies but all Government funding has been dropped for it. There are a few hundred fluent speakers but it’s very rare to hear spoken in public. Cornish is the only living Celtic language still spoken in Mainland England, and has been after Cumbric died in the 13th century.
Scottish Gaelic (not to be confused with Scots) is also on the up, it is taught in a lot of Scottish schools and spoken natively in the Western Isles. Recently it has gained a lot of recognition and popularity.
Overall its very heartwarming to see such successful revival efforts. Cornish is the only one at risk of being lost, which is a great shame since Cornish is one of only 3 Brithonic languages still alive (The others being Welsh and Breton), Brithonic languages were the Original languages spoken in Great Britain before the Germanic conquests. The other Celtic languages spoken in Great Britain (Manx and Scots Gaelic) are Gaelic, and originated in Ireland’
The Latvian Russian Language Referendum 2012 - asking whether the Russian Language should be given official language status ; and the use of the Russian language at home in Latvia (2011)
The Latvian Russian Language Referendum 2012 - asking whether the Russian Language should be given official language status ; and the use of the Russian language at home in Latvia (2011)
‘The Russian language in Latvia is not only the language of ethnic Russians, but also of ¾ of Belorussians, 2/3 of Ukrainians, 4/5 of Jews, more than ½ of Poles’–mahendrabirbikram
German language in Poland, 1931
German language in Poland, 1931
‘Whats crazy is how much of the german-speaking region is included in modern day poland, rather than the slavic parts’–angriguru
Corsican dialects
Corsican dialects
‘It’s interesting that corso is the closest language to tuscan and therefore to standard Italian, far more close than any other Italian regional language’–medhelan
Ethno-religious map of Iraq
Ethno-religious map of Iraq
‘Why not also separate Sunni Kurds from Shia Kurds and why not separate Sunni Turkomen from Shia Turkomen? Yes religious sects do play a role even outside of Arabs’–TurkicWarrior
Ethno-linguistic map of Ghana (1966)
Ethno-Linguistic Composition of the Caucasus, 1990
Ethno-Linguistic Composition of the Caucasus, 1990
‘This is a really detailed and interesting map thank you :)‘–HiroYeeeto
1910 Languages of Central Europe (without borders)
1910 Languages of Central Europe (without borders)
‘Reddish hues are Germanic languages, bluish ones are Romance, green Slavic.
The big light pink blob in the center is High German. To the north of it, darker pink, Low German and, further north and darker, Danish. The reddish hue on the border between Danish and Low German, and also in the Netherlands, is Frisian. Continuing counterclockwise you have Dutch, French, Italian; then purple is probably Friulian, which here is counted as a separate language while things like Lombardian are grouped as dialects of Italian.
Next comes Yugoslavian, including Slovenian and Bosnio-Croat-Montenegro-Serbian. Brown is Hungarian, light green is Slovakian, the green almost entirely surrounded by German is Czech, the green entirely surrounded by German is Sorbian, the green with lots of small German enclaves is Polish. The yellowish tone in the northeast is likely Lithuanian’–eukubernetes
Ethnolinguistic structure of eastern territories of the Kingdom of Prussia in years 1816-1831
Ethnolinguistic structure of eastern territories of the Kingdom of Prussia in years 1816-1831
‘As for West Slavs in Pommerania, those would be Slovincians or other Pommeranian groups that hadn’t been assimilated by the 1830s.
Lithuanian minority in East Prussia was quite huge, they were the majority in the countryside around Tilsit, and Tilsit itself acted as a big Lithuanian cultural centre at the time. Lithuanian was banned in Imperial Russia, so they printed the books in Tilsit and smuggled it across the border.
And it isn’t that different than the situation just before WW1 or WW2 even, as even up to 1945, Lithuanians formed a big minority in eastern East Prussia while Polish speaking Mazurians were a large minority along the Polish border (southern East Prussia)‘–Vitaalis
Early 20th century languages in Albania, divided by religion
Early 20th century languages in Albania, divided by religion
‘That ‘Gorani’ was really confusing me until I looked it up’–Ainalhafila
How long the Irish (Gaeilge) language survived in Irish counties
How long the Irish (Gaeilge) language survived in Irish counties
‘Save this language … I’m trying, Duolingo has Irish I was doing quite well. But it’s tough due to the way the language is structured it’s not intuitive to a native English speaker. Like anything it takes practice and if you stop you lose your momentum … Learning the language online does not save any language. It’s a nice thing to tell yourself, but in reality if one would want to help, one would have to take a lot of money anc create economic and cultural resource in Ireland - that basically means create job opportunities etc. And that’s nearly impossible for individuals to casually support’
Languages of East Timor
Languages of East Timor
‘East Timor has some impressively detailed language data’–LlNES653
Aboriginal Languages of Australia [the Tindale Map] - published in 1974 by Norman B Tindale, it took 50 years to complete, and obliterated the idea that Australia was Terra Nullius (‘No Mans Land’)
Aboriginal Languages of Australia [the Tindale Map] - published in 1974 by Norman B Tindale, it took 50 years to complete, and obliterated the idea that Australia was Terra Nullius (‘No Mans Land’)
‘Imagine the knowledge this country has lost due to lack of respect for Aboriginal people. You don’t survive 40-65,000 years in a country like this without a few good ideas.
Also consider how they got here well before other cultures started navigating around the seas. They either had to set off with a large number of people and “hope” to find something or someone found something, went back, got more people and then returned’–adventofcodeaddict
Map showing the distribution of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia - by Norman B. Tindale (1940)
Map showing the distribution of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia - by Norman B. Tindale (1940)
‘Strange that only 200 years ago you could just walk in and take over a country the size of USA’–Aussie_Crawl
Sub-branches of the Bengali-Assamese languages. The map is based on the historical ranges
Sub-branches of the Bengali-Assamese languages. The map is based on the historical ranges
[3095 × 2529]
The Languages of India (1862)
The Languages of India (1862)
‘It’s interesting to see how many there are. I’m sure there are thousands of sub-dialects in those families.
A friend at college is Tamil he would often discuss how he is not Indian. He did that because I asked he wasn’t angry it was a historical discussion. He even said look at how his Indian friend has light skin and a large nose (compared to his) just like I did. It was true there is a sharp contrast between north Indians and the southern Dravidian speaking peoples’–dghughes
Romansh, German and Italian dialects in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland
Romansh, German and Italian dialects in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland
Balochi dialects and languages of Baluchistan
Balochi dialects and languages of Baluchistan
‘Didn’t know Baluchistan was 50% of Pakistan :D’–MertOKTN
Language dotmap of Poland, from the 1931 census
Language dotmap of Poland, from the 1931 census
‘My understanding is that the “Hebrew” responses to the mother tongue question were basically aspirational, indicating support for the Zionist movement and/or Hebrew revival’–Lazar_Taxon