When linguists talk about the historical relationship between languages, they use a tree metaphor. An ancient source (say, Indo-European) has various branches (e.g., Romance, Germanic), which themselves have branches (West Germanic, North Germanic), which feed into specific languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian). Lessons on language families are often illustrated with a simple tree diagram that has all the information but lacks imagination. There’s no reason linguistics has to be so visually uninspiring. Minna Sundberg, creator of the webcomic Stand Still. Stay Silent, a story set in a lushly imagined post-apocalyptic Nordic world, has drawn the antidote to the boring linguistic tree diagram.
Also worth checking out is the page before the tree, where she gives a comparison chart of words in the Nordic languages, and illustrates what an outlier Finnish is with the concept of “meow.” More.
See: Mental Floss
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Португалия
Local time: 18:50
английский => португальский
+ ...
What a beutiful and interesting linguistic family tree.
[Edited at 2014-10-29 10:06 GMT]
США
Local time: 13:50
русский => английский
+ ...
I love trees in any form--the symbol of life.
Китай
Local time: 02:50
китайский => английский
I have printed it out and will be Blutacking it up on their wall. One of the most inspiring things about the last few years has been the development of great images and stories to tell truths about the world as discovered by science. I recommend xkcd for other cool images.
США
Local time: 12:50
Член ProZ.com c 2008
хорватский => английский
+ ...
I know it's probably a stupid question, but when is/was the mentioned year 0 reference point?
Nice, though.
Local time: 19:50
Член ProZ.com c 2006
испанский => голландский
+ ...
Beautifull tree, but as Rudolf, I am also a bit curious when was year 0.
[Edited at 2014-10-29 21:53 GMT]
Китай
Local time: 02:50
китайский => английский
The woman who drew the chart writes & draws a comic strip about a post-apocalyptic near future, so I think the 0 is a reference to a new calendar adopted after the apocalypse.
Local time: 13:50
английский => русский
+ ...
Can anybody think of better decoration of the walls in an office of a linguist!? Amazing! As Harry Lorraine states visualization of a concept is crucial. I believe if I look it every day I will finally learn these main language families!
Local time: 20:50
иврит => английский
Unfortunately, the author only included the languages relevant to the plot of her book, so the Semitic languages have been left out (so not exactly all "Old World languages" - the title is a bit misleading).
Великобритания
Local time: 18:50
иврит => английский
Would have liked it to be a generic language family tree so it included the Semitic languages (my source language). Shame I can't draw, paint or sketch to save my life, otherwise I'd have a go at doing one.
[Edited at 2014-10-31 10:15 GMT]
Local time: 00:20
немецкий => английский
+ ...
Some i important Asian languages are missing.
Where are Telugu, Tamil or Kannada which are very old languages?
Великобритания
Local time: 18:50
иврит => английский
Some i important Asian languages are missing.
Where are Telugu, Tamil or Kannada which are very old languages?
it is a "Comprehensive overlook of the Nordic languages in their Old World language families", i.e. it only addresses the trees where somewhere down the line there is a Nordic language branching from it, which means the Indo-European and Finno-Ugric/Uralic trees only.
[Edited at 2014-10-31 13:47 GMT]
Local time: 00:20
немецкий => английский
+ ...
Since it mentioned a few modern Indian languages, I thought these should have been included too.
It would have been nice if all languages had been included. The visual effect is good.
Local time: 19:50
Член ProZ.com c 2006
испанский => голландский
+ ...
like those of the pre-Colombian cultures (still spoken today) and also in Asia they communicate with each other!
But this is beyond the point, the tree represents, at least that is how interpretate it, the history of what we speak in "the West" now, no more, no less, so let's not start nagging about missing languages. Perfect doesn't exist.
[Edited at 2014-10-31 17:57 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-10-31 18:01 GMT]
Великобритания
Local time: 18:50
иврит => английский
like those of the pre-Colombian cultures (still spoken today) and also in Asia they communicate with each other!
The tree only represents the family trees with a connection to the Nordic languages.
Local time: 19:50
Член ProZ.com c 2006
испанский => голландский
+ ...
That is what I meant with "what we speak in "the West", but please also see my last words: "let's not start nagging about missing languages. Perfect doesn't exist".
[Edited at 2014-10-31 21:49 GMT]
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