Living Language Loom+ · Companion to the Atlas of Alphabets

Atlas of Tongues

Speech gap: 0 write as you speak · 1 spelling only · 2 register and vocabulary · 3 distinct grammar, partly intelligible · 4 a different language learned at school · 5 no writing for the speech, or no speakers for the writing.
Script gap: 0 one script, one standard · 1 minor variants · 2 two standards, one script · 3 two scripts most readers read both · 4 two scripts most read only one · 5 mutually illegible and enforced, or replaced within living memory.

The schism spectrum Seven ways the tongue and the hand part company, ordered from writing that froze to speech raised back from the page. Select a band to filter; double-click to see only that kind.

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The schism plane

Each split placed by two measures: how far speech sits from the written norm (across), and how far the written forms have split from each other (up).

When the splits opened

Each bar runs from the first evidence of the gap to its resolution, or to today. Diamonds mark the events in each file; hover for the date.

Index