Indosphere

Indosphereis a term coined by the linguistJames Matisofffor areas ofIndianlinguistic influence in the neighboringSouthern Asian,Southeast Asian,andEast Asianregions. It is commonly used inareal linguisticsin contrast with theSinophonelanguages of theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic areaof theSinosphere.Notably, unlike terms such asLusophoneorFrancophonethat refer to the multinational spread and influence of a single language with multiple dialects (PortugueseandFrenchrespectively from the example), this term refers to all languages that are considered to originate in India, of which there are22 recognised languagesalone across several major language families, includingIndo-EuropeanandDravidian.It considers these collectively in regards to the influence of these languages on the languages of other countries, rather than from the perspective of the spread of the language only.

Influence

TheTibeto-Burmanfamily of languages, which extends over a huge geographic range, is characterized by great typological diversity, comprising languages that range from the highly tonal,monosyllabic,analytictype with practically noaffixationalmorphology, like theLoloish languages,to marginally tonal or atonal languages with complex systems ofverbal agreementmorphology, like theKirantigroup of Nepal. This diversity is partly to be explained in terms ofareal influencesfromChineseon the one hand andIndo-Aryan languageson the other.^[1]Matisoff proposed two large and overlapping areas combining cultural and linguistic features – the "Sinosphere" and the "Indosphere", influenced by China and India respectively.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]A buffer zone between them as a third group was proposed by Kristine A. Hildebrandt, followed by B. Bickel and J. Nichols.^[6]The Indosphere is dominated byIndic languages.^[7]

Some languages firmly belong to one or the other. For example, theMundaandKhasibranches ofAustroasiatic languages,the Tibeto-Burman languages of EasternNepal,and much of the "Kamarupan"group of Tibeto-Burman, which most notably includes theMeitei(Manipuri), are Indospheric; while theHmong–Mienfamily, theKam–Suibranch ofKadai,the Loloish branch of Tibeto-Burman, andVietnamese(Viet–Muong) are Sinospheric. Some other languages, likeThaiandTibetan,have been influenced by both Chinese and Indian languages at different historical periods. Still, other linguistic communities are so remote geographically that they have escaped significant influence from either. For example, theAslian branchofMon–KhmerinMalaya,or theNicobarese branchof Mon–Khmer in theNicobar Islandsof the Indian Ocean shows little influence by Sinosphere or Indosphere.^[1]TheBodish languagesandKham languagesare characterized by hybridprosodic propertiesakin to related Indospheric languages towards the west and also Sinospheric languages towards the east.^[9]Some languages of theKiranti groupin the Indosphere rank among the morphologically most complex languages of Asia.^[10]

Indian cultural, intellectual, and political influence – especially that ofPallavawriting system – began to penetrate both insular and peninsularSoutheast Asiaabout 2000 years ago. Indic writing systems were adopted first byAustronesians,likeJavaneseandCham,andAustroasiatics,likeKhmerandMon,then byTai(SiameseandLao) and Tibeto-Burmans (Pyu,Burmese,andKaren). Indospheric languages are also found inMainland Southeast Asia(MSEA), defined as the region encompassingLaos,Cambodia,andThailand,as well as parts ofBurma,PeninsularMalaysiaandVietnam.Related scripts are also found in South East Asian islands ranging fromSumatra,Java,Bali,southSulawesiand most of thePhilippines.^[11]The learned components of the vocabularies of Khmer, Mon, Burmese and Thai/Lao consist of words ofPaliorSanskritorigin. Indian influence also spread north to the Himalayan region. Tibetan has used Ranjana writing since 600 AD, but has preferred to calque new religious and technical vocabulary from native morphemes rather than borrowing Indian ones.^[1]

Structure

Languages in the "Sinosphere" (East Asiaand North Vietnam) tend to be analytic, with little morphology,monosyllabicorsesquisyllabiclexical structures, extensive compounding, complex tonal systems, and serial verb constructions. Languages in the "Indosphere" (South AsiaandSoutheast Asia) tend to be more agglutinative, withpolysyllabicstructures,extensive caseand verb morphology, and detailed markings of interpropositional relationships.^[2]^[3]Manange(like otherTamangic languages) is an interesting case to examine in this regard, as geographically it fits squarely in the "Indospheric" Himalayas, but typologically it shares more features with the "Sinospheric" languages.^[2]Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in the Sinosphere tend to be more isolating, while those spoken in the Indosphere tend to be more morphologically complex.^[12]

Many languages in the western side of theSino-Tibetan family,which includes the Tibeto-Burman languages, show significant typological resemblances with other languages ofSouth Asia,which puts them in the group of Indosphere. They often have heavier syllables than found in the east, whiletone systems,though attested, are not as frequent.^[13]Indospheric languages are often toneless and/or highlysuffixal.^[14]Often there is considerableinflectionalmorphology, from fully developedcase markingsystems to extensivepronominalmorphology found on the verb. These languages generally mark a number of types ofinter-casual relationshipsand have distinct construction involvingverbal auxiliaries.^[13]Languages of the Indosphere typically displayretroflex stop consonants,postsententialrelative clausesand the extended grammaticalization of the verbsay.^[7]In Indospheric languages, such as the Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeast India and Nepal, for example, the development of relative pronouns and correlative structures as well as of retroflex initial consonants is often found.^[5]

References

^^a ^b ^cMatisoff, James Alan (2003),Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction,University of California Press, pp. 6–7,ISBN 0-520-09843-9
^^a ^b ^cRobert M. W. Dixon, Y. Alexandra,Adjective Classes: A Cross-linguistic Typology,page 74, Oxford University Press, 2004,ISBN 0-19-920346-6
^^a ^bMatisoff, James(1990), "On Megalocomparison",Language,66(1): 106–120,doi:10.2307/415281,JSTOR 415281
^Enfield, N. J. (2005), "Areal Linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia",Annual Review of Anthropology,34:181–206,doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120406,hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0013-167B-C
^^a ^bRJ LaPolla, The Sino-Tibetan Languages, La Trobe University
^Miestamo, Matti; Wälchli, Bernhard (2007),New challenges in typology,Walter de Gruyter, p. 85,ISBN 978-3-11-019592-7
^^a ^bSaxena, Anju (2004)."Linguistic synchrony and diachrony on the roof of the world – the study of Himalayan languages"(PDF).In Saxena, Anju (ed.).Himalayan Languages: Past and Present.Walter de Gruyter. pp. 3–29.ISBN 978-3-11-017841-8.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-05-17.Retrieved2015-11-16.
^Kulke, Hermann (2004).A history of India.Rothermund, Dietmar 1933– (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.ISBN 0-203-39126-8.OCLC 57054139.
^Matti Miestamo & Bernhard Wälchli,New Challenges in Typology,page 90, Walter de Gruyter, 2007,ISBN 3-11-019592-5
^David Levinson & Karen Christensen,Encyclopedia of Modern Asia: a berkshire reference work,page 494, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002,ISBN 0-684-80617-7
^Martin Haspelmath,The World Atlas of Language Structures,page 569, Oxford University Press, 2005,ISBN 0-19-925591-1
^Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon,Grammars in Contact,page 4, Oxford University Press, 2006,ISBN 0-19-920783-6
^^a ^bCarol Genetti,A Grammar of Dolakha Newar,page 3, Walter de Gruyter, 2007,ISBN 3-11-019303-5
^Colin Renfrew, April M. S. McMahon & Robert Lawrence Trask,Time Depth in Historical Linguistics,page 334, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2000,ISBN 1-902937-06-6

External links

[Matisoff-1] Matisoff, James Alan (2003),Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: System and Philosophy of Sino-Tibetan Reconstruction,University of California Press, pp. 6–7,ISBN 0-520-09843-9

[Dixon-2] Robert M. W. Dixon, Y. Alexandra,Adjective Classes: A Cross-linguistic Typology,page 74, Oxford University Press, 2004,ISBN 0-19-920346-6

[Matisoff1990-3] Matisoff, James(1990), "On Megalocomparison",Language,66(1): 106–120,doi:10.2307/415281,JSTOR 415281

[Enfield-4] Enfield, N. J. (2005), "Areal Linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia",Annual Review of Anthropology,34:181–206,doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120406,hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0013-167B-C

[LaPolla-5] RJ LaPolla, The Sino-Tibetan Languages, La Trobe University

[mestamo-6] Miestamo, Matti; Wälchli, Bernhard (2007),New challenges in typology,Walter de Gruyter, p. 85,ISBN 978-3-11-019592-7

[anju-7] Saxena, Anju (2004)."Linguistic synchrony and diachrony on the roof of the world – the study of Himalayan languages"(PDF).In Saxena, Anju (ed.).Himalayan Languages: Past and Present.Walter de Gruyter. pp. 3–29.ISBN 978-3-11-017841-8.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-05-17.Retrieved2015-11-16.

[diasind1-8] Kulke, Hermann (2004).A history of India.Rothermund, Dietmar 1933– (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.ISBN 0-203-39126-8.OCLC 57054139.

[9] Matti Miestamo & Bernhard Wälchli,New Challenges in Typology,page 90, Walter de Gruyter, 2007,ISBN 3-11-019592-5

[10] David Levinson & Karen Christensen,Encyclopedia of Modern Asia: a berkshire reference work,page 494, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002,ISBN 0-684-80617-7

[11] Martin Haspelmath,The World Atlas of Language Structures,page 569, Oxford University Press, 2005,ISBN 0-19-925591-1

[12] Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon,Grammars in Contact,page 4, Oxford University Press, 2006,ISBN 0-19-920783-6

[carol-13] Carol Genetti,A Grammar of Dolakha Newar,page 3, Walter de Gruyter, 2007,ISBN 3-11-019303-5

[14] Colin Renfrew, April M. S. McMahon & Robert Lawrence Trask,Time Depth in Historical Linguistics,page 334, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2000,ISBN 1-902937-06-6

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Indosphere

Influence

Structure

See also

References

Further reading

External links