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Investigating the Relatedness of the Endangered Dogon Languages Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2013 Investigating the Relatedness of the Endangered Dogon Languages Moran, Steven ; Prokić, Jelena Abstract: In this article we apply up-to-date methods of quantitative language comparison, inspired by algorithms successfully applied in bioinformatics to decode DNA and determine the genetic relatedness of humans, to language data in an attempt to shed light on the current situation of a family of languages called Dogon, which are spoken in Mali, West Africa. Our aim is to determine the linguistic subgroupings of these languages, which we believe will shed light on their prehistory, highlight the linguistic diversity of these groups and which may ultimately inform studies on the cultural boundaries of these languages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqt061 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-84673 Journal Article Originally published at: Moran, Steven; Prokić, Jelena (2013). Investigating the Relatedness of the Endangered Dogon Languages. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 28(4):676-691. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqt061 Literary and Linguistic Computing Advance Access published September 17, 2013 Investigating the relatedness of the ............................................................................................................................................................endangered Dogon languages Steven Moran University of Marburg and University of Zurich Jelena Prokic´ University of Marburg ....................................................................................................................................... Abstract Correspondence: In this article we apply up-to-date methods of quantitative language comparison, Downloaded from Steven Moran, Seminar fu¨r inspired by algorithms successfully applied in bioinformatics to decode DNA and Allgemeine determine the genetic relatedness of humans, to language data in an attempt to Sprachwissenschaft, shed light on the current situation of a family of languages called Dogon, which Plattenstrasse 54, Raum 206, are spoken in Mali, West Africa. Our aim is to determine the linguistic sub- University of Zurich, 8033 groupings of these languages, which we believe will shed light on their prehistory, Zurich, Switzerland. http://llc.oxfordjournals.org/ Email: highlight the linguistic diversity of these groups and which may ultimately inform [email protected] studies on the cultural boundaries of these languages. ................................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction will shed light on their prehistory, highlight the lin- guistic diversity of these groups and which may ul- This year’s theme of the Digital Humanities confer- timately inform studies on the cultural boundaries ence is ‘digital diversity: cultures, languages and of these languages. by guest on September 18, 2013 methods’. Our research fits in naturally with this Some of the Dogon languages are spoken by rela- motif because human cultures and languages are tively small groups and thus can be considered intimately intertwined with each other. What is endangered languages. The study of endangered less obvious is that culture and language both dis- languages and elaborate cultures is particularly seminate in the same ways: through genealogical urgent at this time in history, so we start by describ- descent and through areal contact. Although, it is ing in Section 2 factors of language endangerment incredibly difficult to track the dissemination of cul- and we provide an overview of Dogon. In Section 3 tures among societies, there are tried and tested we describe the data that we use in this work and in methods for determining the genealogical related- Section 4 we discuss the theory of how languages ness of languages. can be compared to establish genealogical related- In this article we apply up-to-date methods of ness. In Section 5 we discuss modern methods of quantitative language comparison, inspired by algo- quantitative language comparison and how they rithms successfully applied in bioinformatics to have been adapted from biology to linguistics. In decode DNA and determine the genetic relatedness Section 6 we give the analyses and results of apply- of humans, to language data in an attempt to shed ing two quantitative methods, the normalized edit light on the current situation of a family of lan- distance (NED) and LexStat approaches, to the guages called Dogon, which are spoken in Mali, Dogon data. In Section 7 we provide an evaluation West Africa. Our aim is to determine the linguistic of these approaches and discuss their shortcomings. subgroupings of these languages, which we believe Lastly, in Section 8 we give our conclusion. Literary and Linguistic Computing ß The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on 1 of 16 behalf of ALLC. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected] doi:10.1093/llc/fqt061 S. Moran and J. Prokic´ 2 Background common influences that lead to language shift. The degree of language shift in a community of speakers 2.1 Language endangerment determines the intergenerational language transmis- Current estimates are that there are around 7,000 sion rate, which is one way of measuring language languages spoken in the world today (Lewis et al., vitality and endangerment. For example, UNESCO 2013). Since the early 1990s, linguists have estimated has a language vitality and endangerment frame- that half of the world’s languages will no longer be work, given in Table 1. spoken by the end of this century (cf. Hale et al., Language endangerment is happening all over 1992). Recent findings based on precise data from the world and it is of the utmost urgency that lin- the Catalogue of Endangered Languages show that guists document and describe these languages before 2 43% of the world’s languages are currently endan- they disappear. In many places in West Africa, for gered and that the rate at which languages are dis- example, there is language shift towards colonial appearing, roughly —three to four per year, has languages like English and French or towards large highly accelerated in the last forty years (Campbell lingua-francas like Arabic and Swahili. Basically, as Downloaded from et al., 2013).1 These figures represent a dramatic an increasing number of people become economic- loss of the number of languages and the range of ally mobile and educated, those people may try to linguistic diversity of humans. When a language is provide better future opportunities to their children lost, humanity loses a piece of the human know- by teaching them the more ‘powerful’ (or presti- ledge base, which includes an irreplaceable encoding gious) language as their mother tongue, instead of http://llc.oxfordjournals.org/ of culture-specific ways of thinking (Harrison, passing on their own smaller, lesser known lan- 3 2007). guage. One area where this shift is occurring is in Most people are familiar with the idea of endan- Dogon country, a region in Mali renowned for its gered species and the extinction of animals, that is, secluded and geographically divided village commu- there are very few remaining animals, or none remain- nities, some of which are embedded in an escarp- ing at all, of a particular species due to factors such as ment, that is, a sandstone cliff that rises 500 m 4 the destruction of the species’ habitat, over hunting or ( 1500 feet) above the plains below it. by guest on September 18, 2013 pollution. A lesser known fact is that languages are becoming extinct at a rapid rate. But why is it that 2.2 Dogon languages languages become endangered and/or extinct? Dogon languages are spoken predominantly in east- There are several causes of language endanger- ern Mali in West Africa. The Dogon people were ment (cf. Austin and Sallabank, 2011), including made famous by Marcel Griaule, a French anthro- natural catastrophes, famine, and disease. For ex- pologist who pioneered ethnography in France, and ample, the small number of speakers of languages who worked with the Dogon between 1931 and of the Andaman Islands were seriously affected by 1956. Reportedly the Dogon had advanced astro- the Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami in 2004. War nomical knowledge of the Sirius binary star and genocide are also a factor that can lead to lan- system, knowledge that is not possible without tele- guage endangerment and extinction; for example scopes. Since then, the Dogon have been shrouded the atrocities of genocide by colonists in in controversy and mystery. Tasmania, where all indigenous Tasmanian lan- As late as 1989, Dogon appeared in reference guages have been lost. Another factor, repression books as if it were a single language, for example., and forced linguistic and cultural assimilation, has Bendor-Samuel (1989). In 2004, an extensive socio- lead to a decrease in the number of Native American linguistic survey by Hochstetler et al. (2004) esti- languages in both North and South America. There mated no less than seventeen distinct languages are also influences from culturally, politically, and and described the language family as highly intern- economically dominant cultures and countries. ally divided. The standard encyclopedic reference on Often these causes of language endangerment the world’s
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