Fri
May
9
The World Atlas of Language Structures Online
Via Brian Chesney, who puts it better than I: “WALS is a database of linguistic phenomena overlaid on a Google Map. It’s fascinating. For example, chapter 138 deals with the etymology of “tea.” The map shows which native languages derive their word for tea from the Sinitic “cha” (e.g., Indian chai) in red and which ones derived theirs from Chinese “te” (e.g., English “tea”, French “the”) in blue. Grey dots are neither, some or most of which don’t have a word for tea (in the dictionaries that were consulted for the study). You can click on the individual dots and see which languages it represents.”
This is how I’ll spend the next three or four hours.