Dōngyà hǎiàn yǔyán qūyù jí qúntǐ zhìtú (东亚海岸语言区域及群体制图) [Mapping linguistic areas and populations in Coastal East Asia]

This study adopts a quantitative approach to examining the diversity of languages spoken along Coastal East Asia. Based on the typological features of 140 language varieties from 17 different affinities, we divide Coastal East Asia into eight micro-areas, in which we observe structural convergence regardless of the genetic affiliations of the languages involved. Another interesting implication of the current mapping lies on the coastal locations where the boundary lines cross from the continent into the sea. In terms of history, these locations, mostly connected to seaways, have clearly been war zones and/or trade centres where a mass of people from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds have encountered. The mechanisms under multilingualism and possible language shift are likely to lead the convergence of newcomers’ language into the same direction as one of the (more) indigenous languages and, likewise, to diverge the language from its sister languages that remain in their own zone.