setting stars: disappearing systems of spatial reference in dhivehi...

Setting stars: disappearing systems of

spatial reference in Dhivehi

Jonathon Lum

[email protected]

30th May 2016 Setting stars: disappearing systems of spatial reference in Dhivehi 2

Outline

1 Dhivehi and the Maldives

2 The Dhivehi sidereal compass

3 Topographic terms

4 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in circular configurations

5 Summary and conclusions


1 Dhivehi and the Maldives


1.1 Dhivehi: language profile Official language of the Maldives

Approx. 340 000 speakers, mostly

in the Maldives

Indo-Aryan

Several dialects

1.2 Topography of the Maldives

Indian Ocean archipelago of ~1200 islands in 26 atolls.

Atoll: ring-shaped coral reef encircling a lagoon, often with islands

around the perimeter



30th May 2016 Presentation title 6

Gan, Laamu Atoll:

Presentation title

LAGOON

OCEAN

30th May 2016 8


Less than 1% of the country’s territory is land.

Average elevation is 1.5m; villages built at much lower elevations

(Woodroffe 2008), and so are susceptible to rising sea levels.

LANGUAGE

Setting stars: disappearing systems of spatial reference in Dhivehi


1.3 Shifting sands

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 70 people and caused extensive

damage and displacement:

– Some small (uninhabited) islands destroyed while others emerged

from the sea.

– Entire communities evacuated and not permitted to resettle their

home islands (e.g. Kalhaidhoo, Laamu Atoll).

– Topography of certain islands altered, e.g. flattening out of

oceanward ridge on Fonadhoo, Laamu Atoll.


1.3 Shifting sands

The Maldives is also experiencing sweeping social changes, largely

due to globalization. Traditional cultural and linguistic practices are

under threat from:

– Rise of bilingualism through increased contact with English (via

schooling, technology, tourism, and travel abroad).

– Introduction of new technology.

– Arabization and a shift to conservative, Wahhabi interpretation of

Islam.

– Population growth and related government policy, which has led

to overcrowding and massive internal migration to the highly

urbanized capital, Malé.


2 The Dhivehi sidereal

compass


2.1 Sidereal compasses

A sidereal or star compass is a system of compass points based on

the rising and setting points of stars or small constellations (asterisms).

Cf. solar compass, wind compass.

Up to 32 distinct points around the compass.

Useful for long distance ocean navigation, but also in desert

environments.

Examples: Caroline Islanders (Pacific), Hawaiian, Chinese, Arab.


2.1 Sidereal compasses

In some sidereal compasses, directions point to actual locations of

rising and setting stars – e.g. Carolinian compass (Goodenough 1953;

Halpern 1986).

In others, directions are abstracted away from actual rising and setting

points, so that points are evenly distributed around the compass. (The

Dhivehi sidereal compass is of this kind.)


2.2 Dhivehi solar compass

Dhivehi has both a solar compass and a sidereal compass.

The solar compass has four main terms, which can be compounded to

form eight (inter-)cardinal directions:

uturu ‘north’ and dekunu ‘south’ have cognates in many IA languages;

iru(mati) ‘east’ and huḷangu ‘west’ are 17th century innovations, from

terms for the sun and (monsoon) wind respectively.

uturu

iru(mati)

dekunu

huḷangu

iru-uturu

iru-dekunu

huḷangu-uturu

huḷangu-dekunu


2.3 The Dhivehi sidereal compass

32 points, each 11.25° apart.

Separate from solar compass – no

overlap in direction names.

Terms for directions are

duplicated on each half of the

compass (eastern and western

sides).


2.3 The Dhivehi sidereal compass

Two additional terms, īrān(u)

‘rising’ and astamān(u) ‘setting’

specify whether the bearing falls

on the eastern or western side of

the compass. e.g.:

– farugadi īrān(u) ‘Ursa Minor

rising’ (N by E)

– farugadi astamān(u) ‘Ursa

Minor setting’ (N by W)

Eastern or western sides may be

left unspecified, if obvious from

context.

gahā ‘Polaris’ (North) and suhailu

‘Pole of Canopus’ (South) are

neither rising nor setting.


2.3 The Dhivehi sidereal compass Dhivehi name Star or constellation Bearing

gahā Polaris (Pole Star) North

farugadi īrānu/astamānu Ursa Minor rising/setting N by E / N by W

nāsi īrānu/astamānu Ursa Major rising/setting NNE / NNW

nāgā īrānu/astamānu Cassiopeia rising/setting NE by N / NW by N

ayyugu īrānu/astamānu Capella rising/setting NE / NW

gāsilu īrānu/astamānu Vega rising/setting NE by E / NW by W

simāgu īranu/astamānu Arcturus rising/setting ENE / WNW

turiyyānu īrānu/astamānu Pleiades rising/setting E by N / W by N

muringu īrānu/astamānu Altair rising/setting East / West

jauzā īrānu/astamānu Orion’s Belt rising/setting E by S / W by S

tīru īrānu/astamānu Sirius rising/setting ESE / WSW

agurabu īrānu/astamānu Scorpio rising/setting SE by E / SW by S

galbu īrānu/astamānu Antares rising/setting SE / SW

himāru īrānu/astamānu Centauri rising/setting SE by S / SW by S

silli īrānu/astamānu Carinae rising/setting SSE / SSW

sillavāru īrānu/astamānu Achernar rising/setting S by E / S by W

suhailu Pole of Canopus South

2.3 History of the sidereal compass

Dhivehi’s sidereal compass was borrowed from Arab or Persian

seafarers during the medieval period.

– Names for stars/asterisms are from Arabic, e.g. Arabic العيوق

al-cayyuq ‘Capella’, cf. Dhivehi ayyugu ‘Capella’ (Reynolds 2003).

– Arab and Persian seafarers had advanced navigational

techniques and dominated Indian Ocean trade in the medieval

period.

– Maldives converted to Islam in the 12th century.

– Dhivehi phonology and lexicon was influenced by Arabic in this

period (see Cain 2000).

Maldivians depended heavily on trade with ports in India and Ceylon –

highly precise navigation was important for survival. 32-point compass

superior to a 4- or 8-point compass.


2.4 Finding north


N

2.4 Sidereal compass: current usage

Most old men still know all 32 points of the sidereal compass, and can

point to the directions accurately.

Where precision is necessary, some old men occasionally use sidereal

directions even on land, and even in tabletop space:


(1) ayyugu farātu gaha bahattai-gen,

Capella side.LOC tree keep.CVB-SUC

ayyug-as kurumatu lai-gen

Capella-DAT front put.CVB-SUC

‘Keeping the tree on the Capella (rising) side, (the toy man is) putting his

front to Capella (rising).’

2.4 Sidereal compass: current usage

However, most young people have never heard of this compass

system.

Knowledge has not been transferred to younger generations. This is

related to:

– Decline of fishing and trading as occupations

– Technological advances: mechanized boats, GPS navigation

– Introduction of compulsory, standardized, English-medium

schooling in lieu of traditional methods of educating children



3 Topographic terms

3.1 Loss of topographic distinctions

Dhivehi has a number of terms for atoll topography:

– dasē ‘lagoon shore’, matifus ‘ocean shore’, futtaru ‘reef (on ocean

side)’, vilu ‘shallow patch in lagoon’, eterevari ‘lagoon’

– eggamu ‘inland’ and atiri ‘beach’ form a directional axis on many

Maldivian islands


However, most of these terms are

not used or even understood by

inhabitants of Malé, the capital.

Due to land reclamation:

– Distinction between lagoon

and ocean sides has been

lost.

– No more natural beaches.

3.2 ‘Going up’ and ‘going down’

Directional verbs arān ‘go up, climb’ and erēn ‘go down into

(something)’.

Also used for motion from water to land (arān) and from land to water

(erēn).

On land:

– arān ‘go inland’

– erēn ‘go beachwards’

On Fonadhoo (Laamu Atoll), however, arān means ‘go towards the

ocean shore’ and erēn means ‘go towards the lagoon shore’.

– Fonadhoo used to have a small ridge along its oceanward side,

but this was levelled out by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.


3.3 ‘Going up’ and ‘going down’

Fonadhoo system still in use, despite the new topography.

However, we might predict this to change in the future, and possibly

even with the next generation.


arān

erēn


4 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in

circular configurations

4.1 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in Dhivehi


kurimati ‘front’, fahat ‘back’, furagas ‘back’

Most often used in intrinsic FoR. Relative FoR uses also possible.

But for objects in circular

configurations, front/back

terms used in a highly

unusual way:

‘front’ = inner side

‘back’ = outer side

4.1 ‘Front’ and ‘back’ in Dhivehi


4.2 Conceptualizing fronts and backs


Inner sides of objects in ring-like configurations are conceptualized as

front sides, and outer sides as back sides. Why?

Three plausible analogies in play here:

– Groups of people tend to sit or stand with their fronts facing

inwards.

– Artefacts with intrinsic fronts (furniture, household appliances,

etc.), often face inwards, with their backs to the walls.

– On atoll islands, which form ring-like clusters, access is normally

from the inner (lagoonward) side of the island, which is

conceptualized as the island’s ‘front’ or ‘face’.

4.3 Future of ‘front’ and ‘back’


This usage of front/back terms is still very much alive in Dhivehi, though

again there is a prospect of change:

– More Maldivians moving to Malé, conceptualized as a city rather

than an island in a larger atoll. This may undermine the analogy in

which inner sides are seen as fronts.

– Contact with English may promote the reflectional subtype of the

relative FoR.


5 Summary and

conclusions


Dhivehi has a number of systems of spatial reference that are

disappearing or which may soon be threatened.

Threats mostly come from:

– natural changes in topography (tsunami, rising sea levels)

– artificial changes to topography (land reclamation, urbanization)

– language contact and bilingualism (English)

– technology (GPS, mechanized boats)

– changing way of life in the Maldives (decline in fishing and trading

and increase in white-collar jobs on land)

Many of these threats are present across the world, and relate to

underlying causes such as globalization, technological advances, and

climate change.

Non-endangered languages can have highly endangered ways of

conceptualizing and expressing space.

Acknowledgements


Supervisory team: Alice Gaby, Anna Margetts, Bill Palmer

Native-speaker consultants: Ismail Ibrahim, Ahmed Rasheed, Nazim

Abdul Sattar, Ahmed Hassaan, and many others.

Australian Research Council DP grant: G1100293 ‘Thinking and

talking about atolls: the role of environment in shaping language and

our understanding of physical space’

References


Cain, Bruce D. 2000. Dhivehi (Maldivian): A Synchronic and Diachronic

Study. Cornell University PhD thesis.

Goodenough, Ward H. 1953. Native Astronomy in the Central Carolines.

University of Pennsylvania Museum Monographs.

Halpern, Michael. 1986. Sidereal Compasses: a case for Carolinean-Arab

links. The Journal of the Polynesian Society 95(4). 441–460.

Reynolds, Christopher. 2003. A Maldivian Dictionary. London:

RoutledgeCurzon.

Woodroffe, Colin D. 2008. Reef-island topography and the vulnerability of

atolls to sea-level rise. Global and Planetary Change 62. 77–96.

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