Linguistic Cybercartography: Expanding the boundaries of language maps

• Main Author: Murasugi, K. (Kumiko)
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Cybercartography; Dialects; Inuinnaqtun; Inuit; Inuit language; Inuktitut; Inuktut; Language atlas; Language map; Visualization; inuinnaqtun; inuit; inuktitut
• Online Access: https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/25231; https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-64193-9.00022-1

Cybercartography, in particular its representation of multiple perspectives and user-centred collaborative approach, is an ideal platform for language mapping. ‘Multiple perspectives’ includes multiple user perspectives, data relations, data presentations, and media formats. The user-centred approach is particularly suited to mapping Indigenous languages, as it empowers individuals and communities to create their own maps. Language maps have traditionally focused on two types of information: the distribution of languages and language varieties within a specific geographic region, and variation in linguistic forms based on geographical factors. In this chapter, the definition of ‘language map’ is expanded from a representation of linguistic and geospatial information to a visualization tool for all types of linguistic information and relations. What all language maps have in common is the presence of three geographical concepts: place, way, and region (Couclelis, 1998).