3.4.2. Country maps
Like the country entries in the Ethnologue, country maps are organized into five
geographic regions: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and (Western) Pacific. Some
assignments of countries to regions are arbitrary, and this shows quite clearly in the maps
section, where countries such as Russia may be split across regions. The island of Papua
New Guinea is also split between its Indonesian, Western side (Papua province, maps pp.
798-801) and its independent, Eastern side (Papua New Guinea, maps pp. 863-883; it is
not clear why this area is mapped in so much more detail; there are roughly three times as
many languages but six times as many maps). A summary of the available maps, by
region and country appears in Table 5, where it is clear that the mapping information is
much more complete for Africa and the Americas than it is for Asia, Europe and the
Pacific.
Ethnologue maps also differ in their specificity. Maps of most African countries
show outlines indicating the ranges of the different languages. In most cases these shapes
do not show overlap, but some maps (e.g. Mali pp. 706-7; Niger pp. 712-3) explicitly
show overlap. Still other maps of African countries, especially in North Africa (Algeria,
Morocco and Tunisia p. 677; Botswana p. 680; Egypt and Libya p. 693; Sudan p. 730)
merely locate labels on the map without outlines, presumably at the center of their ranges.
Labeling is also done differently on different maps, although generally a numbered key
listing the language names is used, and the numbers are placed on the map instead of the
names. It is not clear why the three-letter language codes are not used instead, as that
would reduce the risk of ambiguity in locating entries pertaining to the languages drawn
on the map.
Not every language for a country has a location recorded on the corresponding
map. For example, the country entry for Angola lists 42 languages, one of which is
extinct, but the map indicates locations for only 36 languages. No indication is given for
the location of the missing languages as they do not appear in the keys for that particular
map. One can only note that it is missing by cross-checking the country entry and the
corresponding map. Presumably languages missing from the appropriate maps represent a
lack of available information (see mapping data, below).
Some languages are located in ways that can be hard to accept. For example,
Tuvin, a Turkic language spoken in Central Asian Russia near the Mongolian border, is
represented as occupying four disconnected enclaves in the region 90-98°E and 50-53°N.
The area in between these enclaves is connected by a large contiguous region indicated as
Russian. Cross comparison with a standard atlas (Collins 2003) shows the Tuvin enclaves
to be primarily around the Yenisey and other tributary rivers, including the main local
urban center Kyzyl. Other urban areas within a radius of 400-500 miles appear to be the
centers of other Turkic languages of the region (Northern and Southern Altai, Chulym,
Khakas and Shor). No other centers of population exist that could potentially place
Russian speakers of any density between the enclaves. While it is true that since Soviet
times Russian bilingualism has been widespread in the region, it seems highly suspect
that the connecting areas between the Turkic-language enclaves should be indicated as
Russian. Rather, it is more likely that the information locating these various languages is
inaccurate to some extent. It is not clear to what extent this affects the drawing of
language maps in general.
Table 5. Ethnologue maps by region and country.
Region
Countries with maps
Countries without maps
Africa
Nigeria (11), Cameroon (4), Democratic
Republic of the Congo (4), Chad (2), Ethiopia
(2), Mali (2), Niger (2), Sudan (2), Tanzania (2),
Algeria , Angola , Benin , Botswana , Burkina
Faso , Central African Republic, Comoros,
Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt,
Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia,
Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho,
Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi,
Mauritania, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique,
Namibia, São Tomé e Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra
Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo,
Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
British Indian Ocean Territory , Burundi,
Cape Verde Islands, Mauritius, Réunion,
Rwanda, Saint Helena, Seychelles
(8 out of 57 entries have no maps)
Americas
USA (7), Mexico (4), Canada (3), Colombia (2),
Peru (2), Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda,
Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize,
Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cayman
Islands, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador,
French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe,
Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica,
Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles,
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico,
Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Pierre and
Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,
Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and
Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Uruguay,
Venezuela
Bermuda, Falkland Islands, Greenland
(3 out of 52 entries have no maps)
Asia
Indonesia (17), Russia (6), Viet Nam (5), Nepal
(4), China (3), Thailand (3), Bangladesh (2),
Laos (2), Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Cyprus, East
Timor, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen
Afghanistan, Armenia, Bahrain, Bhutan,
Brunei, Georgia, India, Iran, Israel, People's
Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of
Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia,
Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan,
Palestinian West Bank and Gaza,
Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,
Turkey, United Arab Emirates
(25 out of 50 entries have no maps)
Europe
Russia (2), Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,
Greece, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Estonia, Germany, Gibraltar,
Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco,
Poland, Romania, San Marino, Serbia and
Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey,
Vatican State
(28 out of 45 entries have no maps)
Pacific
Papua New Guinea (18), Australia (2), Vanuatu
(2), Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam,
Micronesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand,
Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Solomon
Islands, Tonga
Tonga, American Samoa, Kiribati, Marshall
Islands, Nauru, Niue, Norfolk Island,
Pitcairn, Samoa, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Wallis and
Futuna
(11 out of 25 entries have no maps)