Formosan Language Demo
October 2004

Explanatory Examples

Some of the potential of linking temporal spatial and linguistic information is demonstrated below.  The basic building blocks to build this system are already in place. We begin with a dynamic TMJava Map created with multiple layers of language map GIS data and historic maps.  The first figure, left, shows a zoomed-out image of the Austronesian language zones. The second figure, right, zooms in closer with a superimposed map displaying a theory of the route of Austronesian language dispersal.

Zooming in further on the area of Taiwan, below left, a map of the Formosan Language zones of Taiwan appears. A further zoom allows us to view, below right, a GIS vectorized version of the Formosan language zones.  Using the mouse to draw a box around an area of the island retrieves a table of the attributes of the language zones.

From the table of attributes we can click on a link to a language profile page for each language. Below left is an automatically generated web page profile with links to language and linguistic information, including the Ethnologue Language profile (below right).

The language profile can be continually updated as new resources are cataloged and linked. Examples of linked resources currently in the demo follow:

A specialized link developed for the ECAI Iraq Culture Atlas by Ray Larson, Jeanette Zerneke and Kim Carl generates a live (hence up-to-date) search of a choice of major research libraries, e.g.

These screen shots merely show some of the possibilities. A mature demonstration would include fuller documentation, with map layers for non-linguistic cultural, social, and physical context, multiple opinions of the major scholars on the subject would be represented so that they could be overlaid and compared, and, especially, the ability to traverse time periods and sources, to include, for instance, sources from Dutch and Japanese colonial periods of Formosa. For specialists, isogloss layers would be added, as available.