Mapping as a method of language documentation
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
On the 30th of October 2024, cluster 1 ‘Concepts and Methods’ organised a one-day workshop on "Mapping as a method of language documentation". The workshop was led by geospatial information scientist Peter Ranacher, who is also head of the Spatial Data Science group at the University of Zurich's ‘Language and Space’ focus area.
The event commenced with an introduction to the interconnections between language and space. This was followed by a critical comparison of the databases Ethnologue and Glottolog as instruments for language documentation and the documentation of geographical distribution of languages. Key thematic issues included not only the challenges associated with language mapping, but also aspects of research ethics. The morning concluded with a "sneak preview" of the open web service Glottography developed at the University of Zurich, which collects, attributes, stores and maps language areas. Both methodological decisions and the optimised approach to language data processing and mapping were discussed. In the afternoon, participants had the opportunity to learn how to map a language themselves. The workshop was interactive, providing ample opportunities for stimulating discussions among participants from different disciplines and represented a significant contribution to efforts to document and understand linguistic diversity and its geographical dimensions.
