Geolinguistics has been identified by some as being a branch of
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
and by others as being an offshoot of
language geography
Language geography is the branch of human geography that studies the geographic distribution of language(s) or its constituent elements. Linguistic geography can also refer to studies of how people talk about the landscape. For example, toponym ...
which is further defined in terms of being a branch of
human geography
Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography which studies spatial relationships between human communities, cultures, economies, and their interactions with the environment, examples of which include urban sprawl and urban ...
. When seen as a branch of linguistics, geolinguistics may be viewed from more than one linguistic perspective, something with research implications; approaches to geolinguistics involve the study of
dialectology
Dialectology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logy, -logia'') is the scientific study of dialects: subsets of languages. Though in the 19th century a branch of historical linguistics, dialectology is often now c ...
and of linguistic
areal feature
In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a common ancestor or proto-language. An areal feature is contrasted with genetic relatio ...
s.
One academic tradition with regard to geolinguistics as a branch of linguistics gives open recognition to the role map-making can play in linguistic research by seeing the terms ''dialect geography'',
''language geography'',
and ''linguistic geography''
as being synonymous with ''geolinguistics''. This identification of geolinguistics with linguistic map-making appears across a range of languages, including Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. In German, in addition to an identification of geolinguistics with the terms ''Sprachgeographie'' (language geography) and ''Dialektgeographie'' (dialect geography), the term ''Areallinguistik'' (areal linguistics) appears as also being synonymous.
A second linguistic tradition is that of
The American Society of Geolinguistics which interprets geolinguistics to be "An academic discipline involving the analysis and implications of the geographical location, distribution and structure of language varieties within a temporal framework, either in isolation or in contact and/or conflict with one another, being originally conceived of by Mario Pei as being a branch of linguistics which would be used to do objective-oriented research on real life language issues and where interdisciplinary approaches would be acceptable."
Furthermore, the Society's mission statement mentions the gathering and disseminating of "up-to-date knowledge concerning the world`s present-day languages, dialects, and other language varieties in the context of their distribution and use, their relative practical importance, their perceived usefulness and actual availability from economic, political and cultural standpoints, their genetic, historical and geographical affiliations and relationships, and their identification and use in spoken and written form".
It also states the Society's interest in "linguistic geography, languages in contact and conflict, language planning and policy, language education and the broader aspects of sociolinguistics".
Two important
geolinguistic organizations exist whose naming and/or translation practices imply a certain recognition of the traditional importance that dialectologists have attached to the role of language map-making as a tool for linguistic analysis. They are the ''Asian Geolinguistic Society of Japan'' and, in Europe, ''The International Society for Dialectology and Geolinguistics''.
See also
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Ecolinguistics
Ecolinguistics, or ecological linguistics, emerged in the 1990s as a new paradigm of linguistic research, widening sociolinguistics to take into account not only the social context in which language is embedded, but also the wider ecological cont ...
*
Sprachbund
A sprachbund (, from , 'language federation'), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. Th ...
References
External links
Asian Geolinguistic Society of JapanThe American Society of Geolinguistics
The International Society for Dialectology and Geolinguistics
{{Authority control
Branches of linguistics
Language geography