Phonological typology in geographical perspective

在国家科学基金会的支持下，伊恩·麦迪逊博士将开发和分析1000种遗传多样性语言的语音和语音信息数据库，以建立语言的语音类型学。语言可以根据它们使用的声音的数量和性质的不同以及这些声音如何在音节和单词等更大的单位中组合和使用来划分类型。基于数据库中的大样本，研究不同类型的出现频率以及不同特征之间的相互关系。例如，使用大量不同辅音的语言是否也倾向于使用大量不同的元音或广泛的不同音节结构。这些统计研究将展示口语之间的差异范围，以及哪些特征和关系模式可以被认为是人类语言的典型，哪些代表了更边缘的性质。此外，这些特征的地理分布将被绘制在地图上，以显示不同地区的土著语言的差异。这将有助于突出语言之间的相似之处可能是由于其使用者之间的历史接触，而不是由于独立的发展。广泛分布在世界各地的特定特征或特征之间的关系模式更有可能反映人类语言的非常一般的设计属性。这项研究的基本目的是为了更好地理解人类语言的共同属性，以及不同语言之间声音结构的差异范围，所有这些都可以表达人类全面的需求。该数据库将发展成为一个可上网的工具，可供其他学者和公众使用。以这种方式提供它将有助于教育公众了解世界各地仍在使用的语言的巨大(尽管正在减少)多样性，并有助于建立对这种多样性的尊重。它还将允许学者搜索其他或不同定义的模式，而不是由原始编译器选择进行检查的模式。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Ian Maddieson will develop and analyze a database of phonetic and phonological information on 1000 genetically diverse languages to establish a phonological typology of languages. Languages may be classified into types according to differences in the number and nature of the sounds they use and how these sounds are combined and employed in larger units such as syllables and words. Based on the large sample in the database, the frequency with which the different types occur as well as the inter-relationships of different characteristics will be studied. For example, whether languages that use a large number of different consonants also tend to use a large number of distinct vowels or a wide range of different syllable structures will be examined. These statistical studies will demonstrate the range of variation among spoken languages as well as showing which of the features and patterns of relationships can be considered typical of human language and which represent more marginal properties. In addition, the geographical distribution of these characteristics will be plotted on maps to show how languages indigenous to different regions vary. This will help to highlight cases where similarities between languages may be due to historical contacts between their speakers rather than to independent development. Particular features or patterns of relationships between features that are widely distributed around the world are more likely to reflect very general design properties of human language. Patterns that are locally limited in their distribution are more likely to reflect accidents of history.The basic objective of this research is to contribute to understanding both the shared properties underlying human languages and the range of variation in the sound structure among spoken languages, all of which can express the full range of human needs. The database will be developed into a web-accessible tool that can be accessed by other scholars and the public. Making it available in this way will help to educate the public about the great (though diminishing) diversity of languages still spoken around the world, and help to create respect for this diversity. It will also permit scholars to search for other or differently defined patterns than those selected for examination by the original compiler.