Macro language (ISO 639)

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Macro language is a language category within the ISO 639-3 standard , compared to the single language category . ISO 639-3 assigns a three-letter identifier to around 7300 living and known extinct languages; the standard is managed by the SIL . According to this, macro-languages ​​are summaries of genetically closely related varieties, which so far have only been listed as individual languages, whose “summary to form a larger unit as a 'macro-language' appears to make sense under certain aspects”. In addition, it says in Ethnologue 2009: "The macro-languages ​​are defined as a [group] of similar or closely related individual languages, which in some contexts of use [of the ISO 639-3 standard] can be viewed as a [common] individual language." 5th edition of Ethnologue (2009) 55 macro languages ​​listed according to ISO 639-3.

The term macro language must not be confused with the term macro family . There is, however, a certain proximity to the concept of the umbrella language and in certain cases to the dialect group .

Macro language criteria

The basic requirement for combining individual languages ​​into a macro language is the close genetic relationship between the individual languages. In addition, at least one of the following criteria must be met (see also the web link below):

  • the existence of a classic standard that is understood by the speakers of several closely related individual languages ​​or at least recognized as the source of these individual languages ​​(e.g. the Arabic language , which is divided into over 30 modern spoken varieties, but also a common standard and a classic basic language - the Arabic of the Koran - possesses)
  • the existence of a common script standard, which can then only rarely be an alphabet script (e.g. Chinese , which is a macro language made up of around ten individual languages ​​- or main dialect groups - that all use a common script, but read it in very different language-specific ways ; the individual Chinese languages ​​are not mutually understandable in spoken form)
  • the fact of extensive linguistic identity of language varieties which, for political reasons, undergo separate development (e.g. Serbo-Croatian as a macro language with the individual languages Croatian , Serbian and Bosnian )
  • Group formation in closely related languages, which in the specialist literature tend to be regarded as a genetic unit of several individual languages, but are sometimes understood as a "language" from a different (political, ethnic) perspective (e.g. Rajasthani , which as a macro-language the Indo-Aryan individual languages ​​Bagri, Gade Lohar, Gujari, Hadothi, Malvi and Wagdi)
  • There are also cases of a revised assessment of dialects as independent languages ​​by the SIL. Languages ​​that have been assigned to a dialect group in the specialist literature have in some cases been combined to form a “macro language” - e. B. Zapotec is divided into almost 60 individual languages ​​in Ethnologue, which according to the usual linguistic assessment are all dialects of a language or dialect group, namely Zapotec. After the individual languages ​​were recorded, the macro language Zapotec was also introduced, which includes the dialect group as a whole.

criticism

The concept of macro languages has been criticized as inconsistent and inconsistent in its implementation so far. In particular, the combination of dialects into a “macro language” only conceals the previous misjudgment by the SIL. Unfortunately, such obvious dialects are by no means consistently grouped into macro-languages. For example, German is still not a macro language; Ethnologue also lists the languages Bavarian , Old Franconian , Kölsch , Main Franconian , Palatinate , Swabian , Westphalian , Low German and various others under Germany , but without the varieties Swiss High German and Austrian Standard German , Federal German High German and so on, or regional lects spoken by millions , such as Berlin , Rhenish , Ruhr German and others to be taken into account. Italian was also not established as a macro language; a few of its numerous dialects are still listed as individual languages.

The definition of previous genetic units of independent languages ​​as macro language appears to be arbitrary (e.g. in Rajasthani, Lahnda, Bikol, Hmong, Luyia), but in many other very similar cases not even in the same language family.

In some cases, some dialects of a unit generally regarded as a "language" are arbitrarily grouped into macro-languages, e.g. For example, the Inuit dialects "Eastern Canadian Inuktitut" and "Western Canadian Inuktitut" form the so-called macro language Inuktitut , which together with Inupiaq (now also "macro language") and Greenlandic make up the Inuit language .

As with the Malay language , naming conflicts can arise when summarizing in macro languages . While the code designates mlythe individual language, msaMalay stands for the entry as a macro language . To avoid confusion, the names of these entries must be given a qualifying addition. The example of Malay shows a summary of partly very heterogeneous languages ​​that cannot be summarized under any other aspect than that of common origin.

Overall, it can be stated that the concept of macro languages ​​in ISO 639-3 and Ethnologue 2009 is handled inconsistently, so that for some applications it poses more problems than it solves. For example, before new language codes and language categories are created (work is being done on codes for genetic units of each level), the classification of varieties as languages or dialects should be thoroughly revised and adapted to a common linguistic standard and after the elimination of "countless" dialects there would be certainly some meaningful groupings that could be defined as macro-language, especially in the case of politically or state-related fragmentations. The problem with such proposals is that there is no consensus or uniformity in overarching linguistic standards of distinction, and mixing politically determined divisions with linguistic criteria could easily lead to problematic results and provoke controversy.

On the basis of ISO 639-2 , ISO 639-5 (language groups) will also be expanded. One way for the future could be to separate the macro languages ​​from ISO 639-3 and transfer them to ISO 639-5.

Examples of macro languages ​​according to ISO 639-3

The "<" sign means "composed of the individual languages".

  • Akan aka<Fante, Twi
  • Arabic ara <all modern colloquial Arabic languages, plus standard Arabic
  • Aymara aym<South, Central Aymara
  • Azerbaijani aze <South, North Azerbaijani
  • Baluchi bal <South, West, East Baluchi
  • Buryat bua <Mongolian, Chinese, Russian Buryat
  • Mari chm <East, West Mari
  • Cree cre <Southeast, Northeast, Plains, Moose, Swampy, Woods Cree
  • Delaware del<Munsee, Unami
  • Slave den<North, South Slavey
  • Dinka din<south-central, south-west, north-east, north-west, south-east Dinka
  • Dogri doi<Dogri, Kangri
  • Estonian est <Standard Estonian, Viru
  • Persian fas <West Farsi, Dari
  • Fulfulde ful <Maasina-, Adamawa-, Borgu-, West-Niger-, Bagimi-, Central-East-Niger-, Nigeria-Fulfulde, Pulaar, Pular
  • Serbo-Croatian hbs < Bosnian , Croatian , Serbian
  • Hmong hmn<all 25 Hmong languages
  • Inuktitut iku <East, West Canada Inuktitut
  • Inupiaq ipk <North, Northwest Alaska Inupiatun
  • Kalenjin kln<Markweeta, Keiyo, Nandi, Okiek, Pökoot, Kipsigis, Sabaot, Terik, Tugen
  • Komi kom <Permyak, Syrian
  • Kurdish kur <Kurmanji, Sorani, South Kurdish
  • Lahnda lah<South Hindko, North Hindko, Jakati, Pahari-Potwari, Mirpur, Punjabi, West Punjabi, Siraiki, Chetrani
  • Malay msa<all local Malay languages ​​and Para-Malai languages
  • Norwegian nor < Nynorsk , Bokmål
  • Quechua que <all 44 Quechua languages
  • Rajasthani raj <Bagri, Gade Lohar, Gujari, Hadothi, Malvi, Wagdi
  • Albanian sqi <Arbereshe, Arvantika, Gheg, Tosk Albanian
  • Swahili swa <Swahili (single language), Congo-Swahili
  • Syriac syr<Assyrian-New Aramaic, Chaldean-New Aramaic (the other languages ​​of this genetic unit are missing, see Aramaic languages )
  • Zapotec zap<all 58 local dialects of Zapotec
  • Zhuang zha<includes northern and central Tai languages ​​(two genetic units within the Tai)
  • Chinese zho < Mandarin ( Standard Chinese ); Min Dong , Jinyu , Pu-Xian , Huizhou , Min Zhong , Gan , Hakka , Xiang, Min Bei , Min Nan , Wu , Yue
  • Zazaki zza <Dimli, Kirmandschki

The full list of codes for the individual languages ​​can be found on the web link below.

See also

literature

  • M. Paul Lewis (Ed.): Ethnologue. Languages ​​of the World. 16th edition, Dallas 2009. ISBN 978-1-55671-216-6 .

Sources, references

  1. ↑ The macrolanguages ​​are defined as closely related individual languages ​​that are deemed in some usage contexts to be a single language.

Web links