TALKINGEVOLUTION

Bart NijssenIM Master

DesIgn acaDeMy eInDhoven

A REPRESEN-

TATION OF

LANGUAGES

EVOLVING

EINDHOVENDECEMBER

2009

Bart NijssenIM Masters Design Academy EindhovenDec. 2009www.bartnijssen.com

Thesis project 1st trimester 2009

TALKINGEVOLUTIONa representation of languages evolving.

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Abstract

As a designer I have the feeling that objects are becoming more and more unified or uniform. There is a lack of individual character in a lot of products. That same thing could be said for languages. Despite the big linguistic diversity we all try to speak the same language.

This thesis is inspired by the analogy of evolution in biology and evolution of human language. Like animals and plants, languages change, split into sub-varieties, revive and even evolve functionless features. The analogy also means that languages, like animals and plants, can become extinct.

Through research, processes accounting for this evolution of language have been found. Understanding these processes can give insights and create awareness of the preciousness and vulnerability of actually any language; from a small indigenous language to a dialect or standard language.

By adapting these evolutionary processes to a series of objects, we can create a physical representation of something as ‘invisible’ as the evolution of a language. Taking the pencil as metaphor for language, but also for the design profession, I want to show the processes that have influenced our languages in the past and show how these same structures are still influencing our daily languages. Because languages are constantly evolving...

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Index

Introduction 7

Initial research 11Definitions 11Hypothesis 12Languages and dialects. 12Linguistic Diversity 13Can linguistic differences be measured? 14

Language analysis 17Approach 17Darwin and the evolution theories 18Evolutionary processes in language 19

Object analysis 27Pencils 28

Proposal & conclusion 31Conclusion 32

Bibliography 35Books / papers 35Video’s / documentaries 37Web / online sources 37

Acknowledgements 40

LANGUAGES

3.586smallest languages

SPEAKERS

2.935mid-sizedlanguages

83

biggestlanguages

0,2%

20,4%

79.4%

of the world’spopulation

are spoken by

are spoken by

are spoken by

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Chapter 1

Introduction

Not only biodiversity on our planet is in danger, also languages are disappearing at high rate.1 Already hundreds of languages have disappeared, following the dodo bird. Lots and lots more are in the same situation as the spotted owl, balancing on the edge of existence. Some must have already been vanished without any trace of their existence or significance.

In Unesco’s ‘Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing’2, a language is considered endangered when it’s not longer spoken by children. The numbers of these languages vary in different sources, but in every case they are alarming. Generally one could say that half of the world’s languages are struggling to survive.

Born in a little farmers-town in the south of the Netherlands, I grew up in a small community. Family, friends and teachers all came from the same village or the ones close by. On our holiday trips to either Amsterdam, Limburg or Twente, as a kid my attention was always drawn by the different pronunciation of our language, even though, in a sense we all spoke Dutch.

1 Linguïstische diversiteit wordt ernstig bedreigd; David de Vaal, 20002 Stephen A. Wurm, Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing (Unesco Publishing, 2001).

When later I left my town to go to University and even later to study in Asia, I noticed that it’s not only the pronunciation that differed; we were using different words, different languages. To make yourself understandable you had to adapt to a more general, or common, language. Even more fascinating I found the density of all these languages. One could tell through someone’s dialect where he would come from. It showed one’s origin, one’s roots.

This small example of how I see my own dialect disappear must be recognizable for a lot of people all around the globe. In this thesis I will try to discover what is at the root of the reduction of linguistic diversity. As I hint in the first sentences, I will draw a parallel to Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species’. Theorists M.Pagel, Q. Atkinson3 and J. McWhorter4 pose that the Evolution of Language can be compared to the Evolution of Species. This in itself implies that languages are not only disappearing, but that they are constantly evolving, so new varieties come up in our daily life.

3 “Languages Evolve in Punctuational Bursts -- Atkinson et al. 319 (5863): 588 -- Science,” http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/319/5863/588.4 John Mcwhorter, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language (Harper Perennial, 2003).

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My goal is to show the processes that influence language evolvement. With the physical representation I design I want to create awareness of the origin of our own languages and how these will keep evolving, with unpredictable results.

A language is a dialect with an army and a navy

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Chapter 2

Initial research

After introducing the topic of languages, some convergences have to be made, since languages themselves, language-science and linguistics are very broad. Within this research I started with exploration of several topics, which I found necessary to be able to really define my hypothesis later. An overview of these topics, which will play a role later in the process, will be shortly explained here.

DefinitionsBefore going into details on the conducted research I

like to set some definitions for the terminology I use in this research

When referring to language, this means any ‘natural’ language. Natural language is distinguished from constructed- and formal languages, such as computer-programming languages or the languages used in the study of formal mathematical logic.

Natural languages are not restricted to written language, because writing itself is a relatively recent invention. If humans had existed for just one day, then writing would have been invented about 11:00 P.M.5

5 John Mcwhorter, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language (Harper Perennial, 2003).

HypothesisCan I create a physical representation of the processes

that causes the evolution of languages? Can I enhance awareness about the origin of our own languages, and give insights in how those will keep evolving in the future?

Languages and dialects.People often talk about different languages, and

understand a dialect as a small variation on the basic languages, that is expressed by a different pronunciation. Dictionaries like the Van Dale6 define a dialect as ‘a specific language of a place or region where it differs from the main Dutch language’. But saying that is not enough, since the dialect is looked at with a Dutch view and independent of the historic development of the language. Dialect is not a simple variation on a standard language, but they are often much older than for example the Standard Dutch.7On of the most frequent aphorisms in this discussion comes from the Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich; “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”.8

6 Groot Woordenboek van de Nederlandse Taal, 14th ed. (Amsterdam: Van Dale). 7 Adrianus Swanenberg, Het Brabants beschreven : dialect in Noord-Brabant, met een bibliografie van 1776 tot 2007 (Alphen aan de Maas: Veerhuis, 2008). 8 Published by Max Weinreich, but did not coin it.

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Another misunderstanding is that dialects do diverge from a standard language, which is not the case. Any standard language is always a merge of existing languages and dialects.

Linguistic DiversityOne of my initial thoughts focused on what earlier

was just an assumption, but had to be investigated to be proven: are languages indeed this different within a specific region. This aspect can be addressed from two different viewpoints. First, from my own viewpoint, which focusses on the Dutch situation, i.e. the Netherlands and the Flemish part of Belgium. Experts assume there are around 512 dialects, categorized in 28 main dialects, which roughly divide into five groups: Holland, Zeeland and West-Flanders, East Flanders and Brabant, Limburg, and the Saxon. There also Frisian, but that is regarded as a separate language.

This classification is based on differences and similarities in pronunciation, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. But they remain arbitrary. One can also say that every municipality has its own dialect.9

9 “De Nederlandse Taalunie,” http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/.

Secondly, seen from a global point of view the density of languages is variating; only 4% of the total number of languages is spoken in the ‘Old World’. These are followed by the Americas (15%), Oceania (17%), Africa (30%) and Asia (34%). But only 250 languages (of the 6000 mentioned in the introduction) have over 1 million speakers.10

Can linguistic differences be measured?The Meertens Institute in Amsterdam has indexed

interviews (‘Dynamische Syntactische Atlas van de Nederlandse Dialecten’)11of 512 different cities and towns within the Dutch language zone. Since the 1950’s researchers of this Institute made recordings throughout the country. These interviews are all available as audio streams in this database, in which the differences in the dialects can be heard clearly.

10 Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.11 Barbiers, S. et al (2006). Dynamische Syntactische Atlas van de Nederlandse Dialecten (DynaSAND). Amsterdam, Meertens Instituut. URL: http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/sand/

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Next to this, there is the ‘Indeling van de Nederlandse Streektalen’12 In that book the authors (C. Hoppenbrouwers) present an analytical index of 156 different dialects. They have used the previously mentioned interviews which were analyzed using the following 21 characteristics of language; Syllabic, Lateral, Continuant, High, Voice, Sonorant, Laryngeal, Posterior, Coronal, Anterior, Consonant, Nasal, Diphthong, Peripheral, Lang, Polar, Low, Around, Back, Front and Vocal.

This shows different ways of working on an analytical way with linguistic differences. During the process in this project I realized that focussing on actual differences between these languages wouldn’t be very communicative. To have all these different languages represented by a particular designed object, would turn out to be messy and confusing. After this realization I made a shift and decided to emphasize more on the processes behind the evolution of these languages. Where do these languages and their differences come from and why do some languages disappear? In the next chapter a more narrow research on these topics will be presented.

12 Cornelis Hoppenbrouwers, De indeling van de Nederlandse streektalen : dialecten van 156 steden en dorpen geklasseerd volgens de FFM (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2001).

Evolution of languagesparallelsevolution of species

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Chapter 3

In order to draw any conclusions, my assumptions need to be verified. After the initial research I dived into the broad field of linguistic sciences, trying to find what I could use, and trying to combine both the academic and creative sides of my interests.

ApproachAt first attempt I’ve tried to translate, the research

from previously mentioned, Hoppenbrouwers’ 21 characteristics of a dialect into a formula. This formula could in it’s turn be applied to different characteristics of the objects. I realized that it would result in a far too mathematical approach of both languages and objects. The result probably would become too random, to make sense.

After some contemplation, the idea was picked up to focus on the processes of the ‘evolution of languages’. In Darwin’s theory in ‘The Origin of Species’13 he explains the existence of the biologic diversity, the emergendce of new species and the reasons why species become extinct. If my research on linguistic diversity could be described

13 Charles Darwin and Gillian Beer, The origin of species (Oxford University Press, 1998).

Language analysis

as similar processes, I can, on my turn as a designer, translate the processes into the design of a series of objects.

This should result in a more general (in terms of ‘more valid’) approach to linguistic differences, because these processes are valid for languages in general, instead of my previous selection of Dutch dialects. Parallel to this direction is the fact that, by researching the processes of creation and disappearance of languages, the results would be better understandable for a non-Dutch audience.

Darwin and the evolution theories“...The approach McWhorter takes (following Darwin’s lead) is

to understand the evolution of language as being akin to the evolution of species, complete with winnowing, competition, adaptation and extinction.”14

The parallel with the evolution of animals and plants is quite simple to imagine, but some side-notes are necessary here, to prevent misconceptions. Whereas the evolution of natural organisms is focused around the central goal of spreading the best genetic material in order to survive,

14 Paul Bloom; in American Scientist on John McWhorters book ‘The Power of Babel’.

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languages do not evolve with any goal. Stephen Jay Gould writes that evolution is not heading for progressive ‘fitness’ but toward simply filling available ecological niches.15 In a same way, linguistic evolution is not geared towards improvement. It’s just constantly changing, to fit a particular ‘situation’ best.

Another parallel with the evolution of species is the fact that, like flora and fauna, languages can become extinct. Just as we are losing biological species at an alarming rate, the same is, and has been, happing to languages for a long time.

Evolutionary processes in languageIn this part I will present the processes that determine

the evolution of languages, as they have come from my research into the origin and future of natural languages.

First, the remark has to be made that the disappearance of specific characteristics of dialects and languages is inevitable. It’s a part of general culture-change and technological progress.

15 Stephen Jay Gould, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002).

Second, these processes are not only valid for the loss of language, but they also explain why new languages/variations appear. This shows the evolutionary status of linguistics.The loss of these details, words and sometimes languages goes along by the ‘creation’ of new languages, details and words.

A) CommunitiesPeople don’t live in closed communities anymore, as

was the case in many places before 1900. Because people lived closely with each other, in mainly small villages in the rural areas, they would only speak the local dialect. People were raised there and would probably spend the rest of their lives in that community or area. Of course this has all changed during the last century. Some small closed communities still exist and show that the local dialects are still flourishing. Another example are ex-patriots who moved to i.e. Canada or Australia and still speak their original dialect among each other.

B) TransportationWith the industrial revolution, more and more new

possibilities for transportation were introduced. This had a substantial influence on the mobility of the people. The first railroad (in the Netherlands in 1839 between Amsterdam and Haarlem) is an example; in the rural

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areas people we’re still dependent on their horses and carts. But then the bicycle and the automobile where introduced around the end of the 19th century. This substantially enlarged the daily living-circle. People came more and more in contact with people from other villages and regions. Because they had to make themselves understandable, they started to adapt and alter their own languages, to a more common understandable one. A dialect started become a regiolect, and later a standard language with only pronunciation differences.

C) Communication devicesSimilar to transportation is the introduction of new

communication devices. The telephone enabled people to communicate with people around the country and later around the globe. More and more the ‘standard language’ showed its efficiency in direct communication. Before that people were confronted with other variations on their language through the radio. Around the 1930’s a lot of families already owned radio-receivers and listened closely to radio-shows in Standard Dutch. This made people more familiar with the standard language. Television further enhanced this process.

D) UrbanizationAnother process in the evolution of language is

urbanization, which largely substitutes the rural culture. The expanding population is an important factor. Due to the more industrialized society, the cities are offering more employment possibilities than the agriculture based villages. The population is growing more rapidly in cities than in other areas. Between 1800 and 2000 the population hof the Netherlands in general has expanded 5 times, but in cities ‘new’ industry cities it expanded around 50 times.16 As in the previous aspects, this means that people had to communicate with people with different backgrounds and had to adapt to a more general practice of language or ‘city-dialects’.

E) EducationIn education two factors play a role. The first goes back

a long time and deals with illiteracy. When people were able to read and write they were thought the standard language of a country. Rural areas always had a higher rate of illiteracy than cities. The average rate of literacy in the Netherlands was 68% measured in 1819, while

16 MC. Deurloo & GA. Hoekveld:, The population growth of the urban municipalities in the Netherlands between 1849 and 1970, with particular reference to the period 1899-1930, in Schmal, Patterns., London : Croom Helm (1981)

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Amsterdam already scored 75% in 1780.17

The second factor is more current, which is the general rise in the level of education. People tend to continue their education longer and try to become specialized. In these fields a specific, sometimes scientific language is more frequently used, to describe a niche or a specialized topic.

None of these five process cause the loss of languages / dialects. Languages live on as they are thought to new generations, but as the language we wpeak is changing, so does the language we pass on to our children. From then on, they start developing again their own linguistics. The clear example is that my grandparents probably did speak a dialect exclusively, my parents only in some cases and that, I, from the younger generation, almost don’t speak a dialect anymore. On the contrary our grandparents probably don’t know words like ‘twitter’ or ‘blogging’, words from this time. The same goes for new words or variations that come up in sub-culture, like the hip-hop-scene which has a whole own vocabulary.

17 H. Knippenberg, Deelname aan onderwijs in Nederland (Amsterdam: UvA, 1986).

In the scope of history, these processes are captured in the process of ‘civilization’, which should be interpret as; a process of cultural and technical developments that lead to urbanization and social entanglement.18 One could say that if you were removed from these processes / influences, your language would not evolve. In that sense, isolation, can be seen as a recipe for language preservation, but evidentially that doesn’t make sense in our culture nowadays.

18 Cor Hoppenbrouwers, Het regiolect : van dialect tot algemeen Nederlands (Muiderberg: Coutinho, 1990).

Represent linguistic evolution through a system of altered objects

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As mentioned in the above texts, I intend to represent the processes of linguistic evolution in a series of objects, that should communicate and create awareness on this topic. Since there are multiple processes found and that within languages multiple processes can run at the same time, the series of objects should, in the ideal situation, represent all possibilities. Inevitability this means that the series of objects should be a ‘cross pollination’ of the evolutionary processes.

That statement puts some boundaries on the object, that I will be working with. The processes, as they come from the field of linguistics, are primarily of a social nature, so they can’t directly be translated into design characteristics. Parts of the object will have to represent these processes. This means that the object per definition is not too complex, as in the assembly of different parts of materials, in size and in context. With this in mind I believe I found a good object for this project.

Chapter 4

Object analysis

PencilsThe final decision for the object is that I will work

with pencils. Not only their simplicity, but also the vivid metaphor with language enhances this choice. Besides that, a pencil has been a classic tool for designers & scientists, of which I see this project bring those two together.

Explorations of pencils have so far shown that they are suited for representing the linguistic processes. Because of their composition of few, but characteristic components they allow to be represented in a wide variety. The pencil could be called an universal object. I believe this plays a particular role in a project like this, because it deals with variations of something general as a language.

With the final series of objects, the observer (or audience) should be able to distinguish the variety and see the combination of processes leading to different outcomes. This is of course of high importance to succeed in the creation of awareness, to represent linguistic evolution in a series of objects.

A

B

C

D

E

LAN

GU

AG

E

AB

AC

AD

AE

BC

BD

BE

CD

CE

DE

ABC

ABD

ABE

ACD

ACE

ADE

BCD

BCE

BDE

CDE

ABCD

ABCE

ABDE

ACDE

BCDE

ABCDE

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The translation from linguistic research resulted in a five main processes which account for the evolution of language. As mentioned earlier these processes will be represented in a series of pencils. Every single pencil shows a state of the evolution of a language. Since there are 5 main processes I want to show each individual step, so every possible combination. By doing so not only the complexity, but also the ‘flow’ of the language change becomes clear.

Below a visualization of this ‘matrix’ is presented, which is the footprint for the actual ‘installation’. The goal of this matrix is showing how one language can evolve in many different ‘states’ as they are influence by each single process (A, B, C, D, E). The final state (ABCDE) showing a fully evolved language.

The processes corresponding with the alphabetical order is as follows; A) Communities B) Transportation C) Communication devices D) Urbanization E) Education

Chapter 5

Proposal & conclusion

ConclusionSince differences can only be shown within a context,

I believe that starting with the standard object and show every small step (or state of object / language) is the best way to communicate that there are several processes running and influencing every single state of evolution.

However, the final object/installation should also focus on the link with language and with each individual states of evolution. It has not been my goal to create an installation that is directly reversely linkable to language and what processes enable their evolvement. My goal is to show the different influences on language, and how these are very much like the evolution of species, as Darwin proposed. Darwin’s theory made us aware, to be precious with every single aspect of nature and gave us insights into the ‘system of nature’.With this model I want to show the origin of our own languages and how these will keep evolving, with unpredictable, but valid results.

By the representation I made, with a series of different pencils, I believe that the observer can experience, see and understand that there is no such thing as a uniform language. The objects show that every variation (in language and in pencils) is working and filling a specific niche.

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Books / papers1. Stephen A. Wurm, Atlas of the World’s Languages in

Danger of Disappearing (Unesco Publishing, 2001).

2. Antonius Weijnen, De dialecten van Noord-Brabant, 2nd ed. (‘s-Hertogenbosch: Noordbrabants Genootschap, 1987).

3. Cornelis Hoppenbrouwers, De indeling van de Nederlandse streektalen : dialecten van 156 steden en dorpen geklasseerd volgens de FFM (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2001).

4. Groot Woordenboek van de Nederlandse Taal, 14th ed. (Amsterdam: Van Dale).

5. Adrianus Swanenberg, Het Brabants beschreven : dialect in Noord-Brabant, met een bibliografie van 1776 tot 2007 (Alphen aan de Maas: Veerhuis, 2008).

6. Cor Hoppenbrouwers, Het regiolect : van dialect tot algemeen Nederlands (Muiderberg: Coutinho, 1990).

Bibliography

7. Sampsa Voutilainen and Taideteollinen korkeakoulu., Koodi : 12 tyyliä, 60 pientä kodinkonetta = Code 12 styles, 60 small domestic appliances ([Helsinki]: Taideteollinen korkeakoulu teollisen muotoilun osasto, 1996).

8. A. Weijnen, Nederlandse dialectkunde, Studia theodisca (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1966).

9. Susann Vihma, Products as representations : a semiotic and aesthetic study of design products (Helsinki: University of Art and Design, 1995).

10. Susann Vihma and Taideteollinen korkeakoulu., Semantic visions in design : proceedings from the Symposium on Design Research and Semantics, 17.-18.5.1989 at University of Industrial Arts Helsinki UIAH (Helsinki: The University, 1990).

11. Daniel Dorling, The atlas of the real world : mapping the way we live (London: Thames & Hudson, 2008).

12. Charles Darwin and Gillian Beer, The origin of species (Oxford University Press, 1998).

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13. John Mcwhorter, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language (Harper Perennial, 2003).

14. Stephen Jay Gould, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002).

Video’s / documentaries1. “D-Square (D-kwadraat),” http://dialect.ruhosting.

nl/d2/index.htm.

2. “Language Evolution,” http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/language/.

3. Gary Hustwit, Objectified, 2009, http://www.objectifiedfilm.com.

4. Evolution; Darwin’s Dangerous Ideas (Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)).

Web / online sources1. “521 plaatsen uit de SAND-database,” http://www.

meertens.knaw.nl/sand/zoeken/lijst_met_plaatsen.php.

2. prof. dr. H.J Bennis, et al, “De toekomst van de variatielinguistiek,” 2000, http://depot.knaw.nl/763/.

3. “Dialect is niet fout - Archief betaald) - de Volkskrant,” http://www.volkskrant.nl/archief_betaald/article1308313.ece/Dialect_is_niet_fout.

4. “Het dialect verdwijnt in Nederland - Wereldomroep Nieuws” http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.wereldomroep.nl/actua/nl/taal/act20060803_dialect-redirected.

5. “Languages Evolve in Punctuational Bursts -- Atkinson et al. 319 (5863): 588 -- Science,” http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/319/5863/588.

6. “Linguïstische diversiteit wordt ernstig bedreigd,” http://www.xs4all.be/~dvdavid/mag_science/De%20mens/mag_science.20000817161552.nl.html.

7. “object language (semantics) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia,” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/423780/object-language.

8. “Charles Darwin,” http://books.google.nl/books?id=LDrPI52uFQsC.

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AcknowledgementsThanks go to my coach Joost Grootens for his thoughts,

inspiration and guidance in this project. Koen Kleijn for his advice on the textual side of this thesis. Of course I appreciate the comments of Gijs, Barbara, Edith, Louise & Ted.

I am grateful to Marlies, for supporting, criticizing and cheering me up. Arjan for his mathematical skills. Last but not least I thank my parents for giving me the ability to speak my local dialect of which I am proud, because it’s part of my roots.

© Eindhoven, the Netherlands 2009

This thesis is inspired by the analogy of

evolution in biology and evolution of human

language. Like animals and plants, languages

change, split into sub-varieties, revive and even

evolve functionless features. The analogy also

means that languages, like animals and plants,

can become extinct.

Through research, processes accounting for

this evolution of language have been found.

Understanding these processes can give insights

and create awareness of the preciousness and

vulnerability of actually any language; from

a small indigenous language to a dialect or

standard language.

By adapting these evolutionary processes to

a series of objects, we can create a physical

representation of something as ‘invisible’ as the

evolution of a language.

www.bartnijssen.com