Linguistic Topography and Language Survival

Abstract

A number of heterogeneous factors determine the survival and death of languages. At Ardahan in 2014, I coined the term 'linguistic topography' to denote the sociolinguistic situation of endangered languages in terms of the diverse factors which determine a language's prospects for extinction or survival.1 The notion of linguistic topography is inspired by August Schleicher and Salikoko Mufwene and opposed to a distinct and, as I shall argue here, complementary approach to language, of which I am a proponent, inspired by Friedrich Max Müller. Charting the linguistic topography of any particular language embodies an attempt to distinguish, analyse and quantify the heterogeneous factors which determine the propensity of that language at any given time in its history to thrive or to fall into desuetude.