Indosphere भारतमण्डल (Sanskrit) Bhāratamaṇḍala Indic Cultural Sphere Dharmic Sphere | |
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 Extent of the Indosphere. | |
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Indosphere is a term coined by the linguistJames Matisoff for areas ofIndian linguistic influence in the neighboringSouthern Asian,Southeast Asian, andEast Asian regions. It is commonly used inareal linguistics in contrast with theSinophone languages of theMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area of theSinosphere. Notably, unlike terms such asLusophone orFrancophone that refer to the multinational spread and influence of a single language with multiple dialects (Portuguese andFrench respectively from the example), this term refers to all languages that are considered to originate in India, of which there are22 recognized languages alone across several major language families, includingIndo-European andDravidian. It considers these collectively in regards to the influence of these languages on the languages of other countries, rather than from the perspective of the spread of the language only.
TheTibeto-Burman family of languages, which extends over a huge geographic range, is characterized by great typological diversity, comprising languages that range from the highly tonal,monosyllabic,analytic type with practically noaffixational morphology, like theLoloish languages, to marginally tonal or atonal languages with complex systems ofverbal agreement morphology, like theKiranti group of Nepal. This diversity is partly to be explained in terms ofareal influences fromChinese on the one hand andIndo-Aryan languages on the other.[1] Matisoff proposed two large and overlapping areas combining cultural and linguistic features – the "Sinosphere" and the "Indosphere", influenced by China and India respectively.[2][3][4][5] A buffer zone between them as a third group was proposed by Kristine A. Hildebrandt, followed by B. Bickel and J. Nichols.[6] The Indosphere is dominated byIndic languages.[7]
Some languages firmly belong to one or the other. For example, theMunda andKhasi branches ofAustroasiatic languages, the Tibeto-Burman languages of EasternNepal, and much of the "Kamarupan" group of Tibeto-Burman, which most notably includes theMeitei (Manipuri), are Indospheric; while theHmong–Mien family, theKam–Sui branch ofKadai, the Loloish branch of Tibeto-Burman, andVietnamese (Viet–Muong) are Sinospheric. Some other languages, likeThai andTibetan, have been influenced by both Chinese and Indian languages at different historical periods. Still, other linguistic communities are so remote geographically that they have escaped significant influence from either. For example, theAslian branch ofMon–Khmer inMalaya, or theNicobarese branch of Mon–Khmer in theNicobar Islands of the Indian Ocean shows little influence by Sinosphere or Indosphere.[1] TheBodish languages andKham languages are characterized by hybridprosodic properties akin to related Indospheric languages towards the west and also Sinospheric languages towards the east.[9] Some languages of theKiranti group in the Indosphere rank among the morphologically most complex languages of Asia.[10]
Indian cultural, intellectual, and political influence – especially that ofPallava writing system – began to penetrate both insular and peninsularSoutheast Asia about 2000 years ago. Indic writing systems were adopted first byAustronesians, likeJavanese andCham, andAustroasiatics, likeKhmer andMon, then byTai (Siamese andLao) and Tibeto-Burmans (Pyu,Burmese, andKaren). Indospheric languages are also found inMainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), defined as the region encompassingLaos,Cambodia, andThailand, as well as parts ofBurma, PeninsularMalaysia andVietnam. Related scripts are also found in South East Asian islands ranging fromSumatra,Java,Bali, southSulawesi and most of thePhilippines.[11] The learned components of the vocabularies of Khmer, Mon, Burmese and Thai/Lao consist of words ofPali orSanskrit origin. Indian influence also spread north to the Himalayan region. Tibetan has used Ranjana writing since 600 AD, but has preferred to calque new religious and technical vocabulary from native morphemes rather than borrowing Indian ones.[1] The Cham empires, known collectively asChampa, which were founded around the end of 2nd century AD, belonged directly to the influence ofGreater India, rather than to theSinosphere which shaped so much ofVietnamese culture and by whichChams were influenced later and indirectly.[12]
Languages in the "Sinosphere" (East Asia and North Vietnam) tend to be analytic, with little morphology,monosyllabic orsesquisyllabic lexical structures, extensive compounding, complex tonal systems, and serial verb constructions. Languages in the "Indosphere" (South Asia andSoutheast Asia) tend to be more agglutinative, withpolysyllabic structures,extensive case and verb morphology, and detailed markings of interpropositional relationships.[2][3]Manange (like otherTamangic languages) is an interesting case to examine in this regard, as geographically it fits squarely in the "Indospheric" Himalayas, but typologically it shares more features with the "Sinospheric" languages.[2] Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in the Sinosphere tend to be more isolating, while those spoken in the Indosphere tend to be more morphologically complex.[13]
Many languages in the western side of theSino-Tibetan family, which includes the Tibeto-Burman languages, show significant typological resemblances with other languages ofSouth Asia, which puts them in the group of Indosphere. They often have heavier syllables than found in the east, whiletone systems, though attested, are not as frequent.[14] Indospheric languages are often toneless and/or highlysuffixal.[15] Often there is considerableinflectional morphology, from fully developedcase marking systems to extensivepronominal morphology found on the verb. These languages generally mark a number of types ofinter-casual relationships and have distinct construction involvingverbal auxiliaries.[14] Languages of the Indosphere typically displayretroflex stop consonants, postsententialrelative clauses and the extended grammaticalization of the verbsay.[7] In Indospheric languages, such as the Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeast India and Nepal, for example, the development of relative pronouns and correlative structures as well as of retroflex initial consonants is often found.[5]
Geographical distribution of languages | |||||
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