New Map, New Language?

In addition to working on point-based maps, I tried my hand at an SVG based map that can be altered by selecting various criteria. The result in this map of Kazakhstan. Like many of the other maps I’ve created, this map shows ethnic groups rather than languages spoken. It’s the best we can do as a proxy for language. You can display a number of different ethnic groups and choose to display either percentage of total speakers in a district or total number of speakers relative to the district with the highest number of speakers. The shading of the map will change, as will the key if you opt for number of speakers. It’s been fun and educational to create and I may try my hand with other countries. China has been particularly difficult to sort out, so that may be next. Incidentally, if anyone has data for Mongolia, I would love to see it.

I’ve been aware of Romanian Tatar for some time, but haven’t seen much information on it. It’s basically a variety of Crimean Tatar. Some sources call it Kipchak, but I’ll withhold judgement on that classification until I can inspect the data. Omniglot has a great bunch of resources on it. I’ll likely add it to the database once I’ve got some better data.