Author: admin

Plotting typological data with R

I made a tutorial on how to plot typological data (here from grambank) with R.

Here is the code.

library(ggplot2) # for creating nice plots
library(dplyr) # for manipulating data frames
library(sf) # for manipulation of shape files 
library(rnaturalearth) # for geographic data
library(rnaturalearthhires) # for high resolution geographic data
library(lingtypology) # for access to databases such as glottolog
library(viridis) # for colorblind-friendly color palettes


# Download to a temporary file
grambank057 <- tempfile(fileext = ".geojson")
download.file(
  "https://grambank.clld.org/parameters/GB057.geojson",
  grambank057
)


# Read the downloaded geoJson file with the sf library:
grambank  <- read_sf(grambank057)
head(grambank)

# create base map of Cameroon
cameroon <- ne_states(country = "Cameroon", returnclass = "sf")

# filter out all data points from grambank that are not in Cameroon
camerbank <- st_filter(grambank, cameroon)
head(camerbank)


#Grambank
ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data=cameroon)+
  theme_void() +
  geom_sf(data = camerbank, aes(fill=label), pch=21, size=2)+
  scale_fill_viridis(option="inferno", discrete=TRUE)

Vielfaltslinguistik in Kiel

Vielfaltslinguistik is one of my favourite conferences. It’s a fairly small event, although it has been growing in recent years. With a focus on less-described languages, you can get insights from all over the human world in just two days. I spoke about verb stem alternations in Vanuatu and what they might tell us about the evolution of language.

Kiel26VielfaltPrinceDownload

Intro to morphology

I just published my intro to morphology (Einführung in die Morphologie, in German). It starts out from the idea of the morphological cycle, which suggests that languages move through stages of isolating, agglutinating and fusional morphology, and uses this idea to introduce basic concepts of morphology, including inflection, derivation, paradigms, and different types and degrees of synthesis.

Afaka font

I regularly go a little overboard when designing puzzles for the German Olympiad of Linguistics, but for one of this year’s puzzles, I really outnerded myself. I designed a True Type Font for the writing system Afaka, which was developed for the creole language Ndyuka. It was conceived in 1910 by Afáka Atumisi and is named after its inventor. It’s a syllabary, partially based on a rebus system.

Afaka letter "fo"

For example, the symbol representing the syllable /fo/ shows four vertical lines. And there is an Afaka word pronounced “fo”, which means “four” (yes, it’s cognate with the English word).

There is a preliminary Unicode sheet with codes, but the writing system hasn’t been fully developed and codified so far. Accordingly, my font is also only a preliminary solution to writing Ndyuka in Afaka script. But it’s great for playing around, and designing puzzles! You can download the font here.