Language maps and sociolinguistic data

Developing linguistic cartography of Bantoid languages

Abstract

Drawing language maps is not normally considered an important part of linguists’ work. Nonetheless, language maps influence their users’ perceptions and understandings of the characteristics of the languages that they represent. Therefore, given their communicative power, wide accessibility, and generalized use for educational purposes, attention must be paid as to what messages language maps convey about the languages that they visualize since different cartographic styles can be suited to representing some language ecologies better than others. However, decisions at this level are not normally made explicit by cartographers, and the ways in which certain ideologies surface in language maps can escape the attention of both linguists and cartographers alike. This article clarifies why these issues are especially relevant in a domain such as that of the study of Bantoid languages and proposes some novel cartographic models that have been used for representing the languages of Lower Fungom in western Cameroon. These include some cartographic strategies for the representation of the language ideologies of speaker communities and of individual multilingualism. The latter is both a key and under-researched feature in Bantoid sociolinguistics and the article suggests how scholars who are not sociolinguists may nevertheless contribute to its exploration.