=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2852/paper10
|storemode=property
|title=The Website «Minority Languages of Russia»: Visualizing Language Data
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2852/paper10.pdf
|volume=Vol-2852
|authors=Konstantin Polivanov,Olga Kazakevich,Natalia Serdobolskaya,Zaira Khalilova,Elena Budyanskaya,Anastasia Evstigneeva,Karina Mishchenkova,Daria Mordashova,Sofie Pokrovskaya,Evgeniya Renkovskaya
}}
==The Website «Minority Languages of Russia»: Visualizing Language Data==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2852/paper10.pdf
The website «Minority languages of Russia»:
visualizing language data
Konstantin Polivanova, Olga Kazakevicha,b, Natalia Serdobolskayaa, Zaira Khalilovaa, Elena
Budyanskayaa, Anastasia Evstigneevaa, c, Karina Mishchenkovaa, d, e, Daria Mordashovaa, c,
Sofie Pokrovskayaa and Evgeniya Renkovskayaa, f
a. Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1 bld. 1, Bolshoy Kislovsky Lane, Moscow,
125009, Russian Federation
b. Institute of Linguistics, Russian State University for the Humanities; GSP-3, 6, Miusskaya Pl.,
Moscow, 125993, Russian Federation
c. Lomonosov Moscow State University, GSP-1, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
d. School of Linguistics HSE University, 21/4, Staraya Basmannaya str., Mosсow, 105066, Russian
Federation
e. Ivannikov Institute for System Programming, 25, Aleksandra Solzhenitsyna str., Moscow, 109004,
Russian Federation
f. Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, 12, Rozhdestvenka str., Moscow, 107031,
Russian Federation
Abstract
The paper deals with the issue of language data visualization on the website "Minority
languages of Russia". This site is created as an open information resource containing materials
on the functioning and structure of minority languages of Russia and their local varieties.
Methods of data visualization in five areas are considered: genealogy, areal distribution,
domains of language usage, dynamics of language usage and phonetic data representation. For
each area, theoretical problems, related tasks and technical implementation are indicated, and
prospects for further work are discussed.
Keywords
Minority languages of Russia, visualization, genealogy, areal distribution, domains of language
usage, dynamics of language usage, phonetic data representation, JavaScript, HTML, CSS.
1. Introduction
The website "Minority languages of Russia" is created on the basis of Laboratory for Research and
Preservation of Minority Languages, Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, as an open
information internet resource containing materials on the functioning and structure of minority
languages of Russia and their local varieties. The pilot of the website is available at: http://minlang.iling-
ran.ru.
The main task of this resource is to systematize the available information on languages. This includes
field data obtained from language experts, as well as various published materials. The website contains
both modern data, which we intend to update regularly, and those related to the previous century.
__________________________
Proceedings of the Linguistic Forum 2020: Language and Artificial Intelligence, November 12-14, 2020, Moscow, Russia EMAIL:
polivanov.studio@gmail.com (Konstantin Polivanov); kazakevich.olga@gmail.com (Olga Kazakevich); serdobolskaya@gmail.com (Natalia
Serdobolskaya); zaira.khalilova@gmail.com (Zaira Khalilova); budyanskaya.lena@gmail.com (Elena Budyanskaya); evstigap@gmail.com
(Anastasia Evstigneeva); karinam6@mail.ru (Karina Mishchenkova); mordashova.d@yandex.ru (Daria Mordashova);
sofie.v.pokrovskaya@gmail.com (Sofie Pokrovskaya); jennyrenk@gmail.com (Evgeniya Renkovskaya)
ORCID: 0000-0003-4571-9476 (Konstantin Polivanov); 0000-0003-0597-2979 (Olga Kazakevich); 0000-0003-2417-5537 (Natalia
Serdobolskaya); 0000-0003-1604-4510 (Zaira Khalilova); 0000-0002-6306-6280 (Elena Budyanskaya); 0000-0002-3413-2058 (Anastasia
Evstigneeva); 0000-0001-9175-987X (Karina Mishchenkova); 0000-0002-8330-520X (Daria Mordashova); 0000-0002-4895-7069 (Sofie
Pokrovskaya); 0000-0003-1944-0746 (Evgeniya Renkovskaya)
©️ 2020 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
Further on the paper is structured as follows: §2 provides an overview of related work, §3 describes
data and methods - the arrangement of the language profile in terms of content and technical
implementation. §4 is the central part of the paper, it is devoted to the results of our work on language
data visualization in five areas of concern. §5 discusses the future prospects of the work, and §6
summarizes the results. 1
2. Related work
In the development process we take into consideration the existing tradition of sociolinguistic
descriptions of the world’s languages: in particular, the results of the long-term project “The written
languages of the world”, created through joint efforts of International Centre for Research on Language
Planning, Laval University (Canada, Quebec) and research groups from all over the world [1, 2, 3, 4,
5]. The two-volume edition “Written languages of the world: the Russian Federation” is also a part of
this project [6, 7]. Furthermore, we take into account such large-scale monographs on the sociolinguistic
situation in Russia as “Languages of the peoples of Russia: The Red Book” and “Language and Society”
[8, 9].
However, the online format of our resource provides more opportunities than the format of a printed
publication. For instance, the information can be regularly updated to remain relevant, and special types
of data can be presented (see §3 for further details). Before we started working on the website, there
had already been several resources dedicated to certain regions and languages. Let's take a closer look
at two examples.
The website “Minority languages of Siberia as our cultural heritage” 2 is a long-term research project
on three languages: Ket, Selkup and Evenki [10]. We use the experience of this resource to a large
extent as far as technical implementation concerns. In particular, content management framework
Drupal was chosen as the site's system core, which is well suited for working with a large amount of
complex data [11]. Besides, we follow the way of presenting certain types of information, such as texts.
Another online project is the Atlas of Multilingualism in Dagestan3 [12]. It is concerned with a
single area of sociolinguistics (namely, multilingualism) on the basis of a limited number of languages
(namely, the languages of Dagestan, Russia). The website contains an up-to-date database on
Dagestanian multilingualism, equipped with a search interface. The implementation of some
information blocks is similar to our website: a map with an indication of the languages and the
settlements where these languages are spoken, and visualization of census data.
In general, the projects on multilingualism in Dagestan and the minority languages of Siberia can be
characterized as narrowly focused, while our website is aimed at a more encyclopedic approach that
enables the users to obtain a wide range of information on a large number of languages accommodated
in the same place. In the future we intend to cover all the languages of Russia.
3. Methods and data
The main section of the site is the webpage "Languages" that contains a list of the minority languages
of Russia compiled by the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences4. At the same time,
the languages are not just sorted alphabetically, but are grouped in language families (including isolated
and mixed languages) and listed alphabetically inside language families and/or groups. Regarding the
language families’ structure, we relied on the latest elaborations (for more details see §4.1). There is an
access to the detailed information on every language from this list.
1We are currently working on the Russian version of the site, an English version is planned for the future. In the paper we use illustrations
translated into English for the convenience of the readers.
2This resource is available at http://siberian-lang.srcc.msu.ru.
3This resource is available at https://multidagestan.com . As of November 2020, it contained the information on multilingualism of the
residents of 60 villages.
4The list of the languages of Russia is presented on the IL RAS website at https://iling-ran.ru/web/ru/jazykirf . This section was prepared by
Yu. B. Koryakov in collaboration with T. B. Agranat, M. A. Goryacheva, A. V. Dybo, O. A. Kazakevich, A. A. Kibrik, O. V. Khanina and A.
B. Shluinsky.
One of the main sources of materials is field data collected during the recent field trips (including
illustrative materials: photographs, current cartographic and sociolinguistic data, video and audio
recordings of the texts with transcripts). To obtain these materials, we communicate directly with
language researchers (both in Russia and abroad). The experts are invited to fill out a questionnaire
developed by the Lab, that enables to unify the presentation of languages on the site.
The website also contains the results of the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union population
censuses (1926, 1989, 2002, 2010). In addition, we draw on early accounts of the functioning of
languages, mostly compiled in the last century. It allows to track the language situation development
for each particular language.
As for the technical implementation, page templates are built in an optimal way, semantic elements
(such as header, footer, article) are used in the construction in order to clearly define the content.
Unnecessary wrapper elements are excluded, thus reducing nesting and simplifying the structure of the
DOM tree (the DOM object model of the document). The names of identifiers and classes of markup
elements are called by understandable words in order to facilitate the reading and machine parsing. A
set of SEO optimization tasks is being performed. All this provides a fast and obvious path to the data,
as well as efficient indexing by search engines.
The user interface is developed by means of modern data structuring and markup tools - HTML5,
as well as cascading CSS3 style sheets. We select the most convenient ways of presenting the
information.
JavaScript and jQuery libraries are used to represent interactive elements. In particular, the leaflet
library is used (with additional extensions such as "Leaflet Markerclusterer" for clustering points on the
map) for programming interactive maps [13]. For developing the interactive dynamic data
visualizations we use the libraries JavaScript D3 and chart.js [14, 15].
Some visualizations are built with the help of "datawrapper" - a service based on JavaScript and
HTML5 that can represent the data in the form of graphs and maps [16].
The structure of the language page and the features of its technical implementation are presented in
Appendix 1.
4. Results
An important task in the development of the language page was to avoid the presentation of data in
the form of a continuous text. It was necessary to organize a comfortable navigation through the sections
of the page, as well as to enliven the presentation of the data. An interactive table of contents and various
rendering methods were used to make the page more aesthetically appealing and user-friendly.
During the development of the language page, we faced a number of difficulties in terms of language
data visualization. The paper examines five of them: the representation of genealogy, areal distribution,
domains of language usage, dynamics of language usage and phonetic data. Each subsection is
structured according to the following scheme: theoretical problems, related tasks of visual
representation and the technical implementation of this representation.
4.1. Representation of genealogy
Genealogical relationship is basic information that is usually given in the beginning of a language
description in the form of a short note about a related language group and a family; it does not imply
further enumeration of related languages belonging to the same group or other groups of the same
family. Still, since our website targets a wide range of users, we find it crucial to provide a complete
picture of the family tree for each language.
As already mentioned in §2, we follow the theoretical paradigm developed in the Institute of
Linguistics regarding the list of languages and genealogical relationships. For example, we consider
that separate groups of the Altaic languages are genetically related and not just form a Sprachbund.
Moreover, we keep track of the latest studies in this field and present a new division within the Uralic
language family [20] on our site.
It is important for us to achieve the following goals: easy usage; adequate data display; visualization
of the full genealogical picture (from dialect to family) with a possibility to narrow it down to specific
segments.
As a solution, we’ve chosen two interactive schemes that differ in the way of data visualization. The
first scheme is a common representation of a language family as a genetic language tree (see Figure 1).
Most trees have a lot of branches, so we provided an opportunity to collapse tree nodes to easily focus
on a specific segment of the scheme. The collapsed nodes are coloured grey. To make the diagram
clearer we coloured the nodes of the languages, groups of dialects and dialects in contrasting colours
that distinguish them from the higher level nodes. The values of the colours are given in the diagram
legend.
Figure 1: A fragment of the Nakh-Daghestanian genealogical tree. The arrow points at the collapsed
node that can be unfolded.
The visualization is based on the D3 tree diagram. The data presented in the tree are pre-packaged
in a json file.
The default structure of the json file from D3 tree did not meet our goals, so we needed to expand
the set of properties and values. Our json file specifies the following properties for the elements: child
/ parent elements and colors indicating that the elements belong to a language, a group of dialects, or a
dialect. A snippet of such a file is given in Figure 2.
Figure 2: A snippet of the json-file
Figure 2 demonstrates the code of the json-file. In line 9, the node with the name "nakh" (in technical
terminology, in this case, the attribute "name" with the value "nakh") has the parent node "nakh-
daghestanian" in line 6 and child nodes with the names "Ingush" and "Batsbi" in lines 21 and 22,
respectively. The "status" attributes contain RGB HTML colour codes in their values. For example,
"name":"Chechen","status":"#ff0000" means that the node "Chechen" is coloured red. The code for
parsing the json file and displaying it in the diagram was rewritten.
The second scheme represents a language family as circles packed in one another (see Figure 3).
The nested circles correspond to the levels of genealogical classification, and the intensity of the colour
depends on the nesting depth. The lowest levels are marked in white.
Figure 3: The Nakh-Daghestanian language family
Technically, this scheme is implemented by using the js-library D3 Zoomable Circle Packing. The
data are packed in a json file with the appropriate structure. Then, js parses the json file and builds a
diagram.
The advantage of this scheme is that it allows to see the whole family in one picture, to get the idea
of its size and complexity. Nevertheless, for the moment the choice was made in favour of the tree
model, because the default characteristics of the second scheme do not meet some of our goals. In
particular, it is not possible to see the names of all languages at once. And what is even more important
we cannot mark dialects, groups of dialects and languages with different colours (colours in this scheme
are assigned automatically according to the nesting depth of a circle), and a suitable solution for this
problem has not been found yet. The modification of this diagram in accordance with our tasks is the
subject of further work.
4.2. Representation of areal distribution
An important part of language description is the representation of the areal distribution. There are
two ways of displaying this area on the map: with polygons (we paint over the territory where the
language is spoken) or with markers (we mark the settlements where the language is spoken). In the
future, we intend to use both options: markers - for languages with a small number of local variants,
polygons - for languages with a large number of local variants. Since we started with languages with a
small number of local variants, at the moment the second option with some modifications is represented
on the language page.
We saw our task here in the following: visualization of distribution of the local variants in the
settlements; easy usage; adequate, but at the same time compact display of the data.
To achieve these goals we developed an interactive map where the settlements are marked according
to the local variants of the language that are spoken there (see Figure 4). Each dialect gets its colour
(see two blue markers at the top of the map for Bezhta Proper dialect in Figure 4). The values of the
colours are given in the legend under the map. For settlements where more than one dialect is spoken a
special multicoloured marker was introduced (see the marker on the right side of Figure 4). When a
marker is clicked, a list of dialects appears in a pop-up window (see Figure 5). When zoomed out,
several points on the map are combined into one cluster marked with a number that indicates the amount
of settlements within the radius of this cluster (see the green marker in the center of Figure 4). This
makes the presentation of the data more compact.
Figure 4: A fragment of the territory where Bezhta is spoken
Figure 5: A window with a list of dialects that pops up when you click on a special multicoloured marker
of a settlement
The data are represented on the map using the leaflet JavaScript library [13]. Leaflet is a library that
has proved its capability in a large number of resources. It provides great opportunities for working
with geodata. Leaflet enables one to operate with any type of data (markers, polygons, lines), to use any
substrates (OpenStreetMap, Yandex, GMap, etc.), and to customize the appearance of the markers and
polygons displayed on the map according to one's needs. Leaflet can be extended with plugins, for
example, for clustering data or for attaching json files with a database. Unlike Mapbox (a paid platform
for working with GIS), there are no traffic restrictions.
The geographical coordinates of the settlements are pre-packed in an array with the following
properties: settlement name, dialect, and dialect code. Then the array is output to the map with marker
clustering. The array elements correspond to the following model: [{latitude Coordinate}, {longitude
Coordinate}, {pop-up window content}, {dialect number (more than one dialect is indicated by the
letter m)}].
4.3. Representation of the domains of language usage
An important component of the sociolinguistic description of a language is a list of domains in which
it functions. Thus, the volume and nature of the language use in these domains allow one to judge the
vitality of the language. A list of 16 core domains was compiled, starting with family communication
and education and up to the language use on the Internet.
When choosing a method for representing the domains, the following tasks were primarily solved:
visualization of a complete picture of the domains within a single user screen; convenience and speed
of obtaining the information.
This has been achieved by drawing up an interactive table of sixteen cells (see Figure 6),
corresponding to the domains of the language usage. For ease of viewing and perception, the table is
structured as follows: the cells of the table contain the titles of the domains, and it is noted whether the
language is used in this domain or not (see the “empty or filled circle” marker in the lower right corner
of each cell in Figure 6). When clicking on a cell, a pop-up window opens with expanded information
about the peculiarities of the language use in this domain.
Figure 6: Domains of language usage in Bezhta
4.4. Representation of the dynamics of language usage
For our internet resource dedicated to minority languages, it turns out to be critical to track the
change in the size of the ethnic group and the number of speakers over time in the case of each particular
language. This section of the language page currently accumulates the data from the population censuses
of various years, and in the future, we hope to represent the data from local administrations and
researchers' estimates.
Thus, the main task was to visualize the general picture of dynamics, which allows tracking the
change of various quantitative indicators in time.
To solve this problem, an interactive diagram was developed. It displays the change in the size of
the ethnic group, the number of group members who consider the ethnic language of the group to be
their mother tongue, and the number of those who reported proficiency in this language (see Figure 7).
A simple charting tool - datawrapper.de - was used [16].
Figure 7: Dynamics of the Bezhta language usage
4.5. Representation of phonetic data
‘Phonetic data’ usually refers to an array of systems, describing both acoustic/articulatory
phenomena and phonology.
A coordinate plane, which is determined by the first and the second formants, or a trapezoid vowel
diagram are often used for representation of a sound system of vowels. However, for phonological
vowel systems a table structure is more relevant, as it enables to describe several differential features
apart from height and backness. As for consonant sound systems, they are traditionally provided in
tables: it is possible to draw a line between different types of features without data loss in this case.
Language description implies a phonology description and a presentation of its sound
manifestations. Our goal is to combine the acoustic and the articulatory features with the phonological
representation in order to make our description compact and easy to analyze without special work with
audio data.
We primarily aimed at a united representation of phonetics and phonology, alongside with user-
friendliness, objectivity and descriptive representativeness.
As a solution, we have constructed graphic representations for vocalism (see Figure 8) and
consonantism (see Figure 9) that reflect a phonological system with its correct sound manifestations.
Each sound is transcribed according to the IPA5, and the whole classification is synchronized with
Russian terms. An optimal representation of the structure within universal consonant and vowel tables
has been elaborated, in order to facilitate the comparison of languages.
5This resource is available at: https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/full-ipa-chart.
Figure 8: Votic vowel system
The representation of vocalism is based on filling out an initial matrix with height values in strings
and backness values in columns. We provided about two or three slots for each traditional element of
classification (height/backness), as the same phoneme in the classification may display different
spectrum in various languages. This solution is crucial both for language comparison and for the
reflection of phonological processes.
In addition to height and backness, there are secondary articulations significant for phonology: vowel
length, labialization, nasalization and pharyngealization. For each characteristic there exists an
additional string or a column, which tentatively accounts for the articulation manner and its impact on
the spectrum. Thus, pharyngealized vowels are placed in columns to the right of the unpharyngealized
ones, and nasal vowels are placed in strings below the non-nasal ones. The length of the vowel is marked
when it is relevant: long vowels take place closer to the cardinal locus than their short pairs. The recited
secondary articulations are marked by diacritics, while labial vowels have their own symbols in the
IPA. Traditionally labials are placed to the right of their illabial pairs.
If the language’s vowel system lacks nasalization/pharyngealization/length, the corresponding table
cells are removed from the initial matrix. Primary strings and columns (based on height and backness)
are preserved, empty cells are visualized as an empty space. It is necessary to distinguish the
phonologically similar vowels with different acoustic features in different languages. Then a trapezoid
is superimposed on the table: phonemes with the same height value adjoin to its horizontal contours,
while phonemes with the same backness value adjoin to its vertical contours, so that each line
corresponds to phonologically meaningful height/backness.
Figure 9: Forest Enets consonant system
The universal table of consonants is defined by the place and manner of articulation as columns and
strings respectively. Secondary articulations refer to the place of articulation. In particular, labialization
or pharyngealization splits each column into additional subcolumns. Labialized consonants are placed
to the left of the neutral column, while pharingalized ones are placed to the right of it. Palatalization is
described as follows: subcolumns are usually added to the right of the initial column in case of labial
and coronal consonants, while in case of dorsal consonants they are added to the left. Abruptives are
put in substrings below each string for pulmonic consonants. The last splitting of columns is done
according to the state of the vocal fold (4 subcolumns: voicelessness, aspiration, glottalization and
voicing). This level of organization has colour marking.
After the initial universal table is filled out, strings and columns with empty cells are removed from
it. Therefore, we end up with a compact table describing the consonant sound and phonological system
of a given language.
5. Discussion
The visualization solutions we have adopted for the current version of the website can be further
refined. We have already provided some development options for certain sections of the language page.
For instance, the visualization of genealogy in the shape of nested circles can be proposed as an
alternative representation, its advantages were formulated in §4.1. We intend to search for the ways of
modifying this representation so that it could meet our requirements. In particular, it is essential to
display the language names at several specified levels, as well as to indicate languages and dialects by
means of different colours. For now, these colours are marked up in this scheme by default according
to certain nesting characteristics.
In §4.2, we have mentioned several options for representing the areal distribution of the language.
At present, we implement the strategy of indicating the settlements with markers on the language page.
In the future, we aim to represent the minor languages of Russia on a separate map located on the main
page of the website. A polygonal representation enabling the users to sort and display the languages
according to their choice seems to be the most suitable solution for this task. In this case, it will be
necessary to provide a possibility of switching from the map to the pages of the corresponding
languages.
As regards the dynamics of language usage (see §4.4), there are also prospects for further work in
terms of visualization. In particular, it is planned to expand the available data through the researchers’
estimations (for those languages that linguists work in the field with), as well as by using the information
that can be received from local administrations. These data would significantly specify the information
provided in censuses. In addition, we intend to take into account the results of the Russian Census 2021.
As for the visualization of phonetic data (see §4.5), the accumulation of material on a larger number
of languages will possibly allow us to further adjust the strategy for representing the systems of
vocalism and consonantism. Moreover, it is planned to transform the phonetic tables into interactive
ones: clicking on the phoneme symbol, the corresponding audio file will be played.
6. Conclusion
In this paper we considered the methods of language data visualization on the website "Minority
languages of Russia" in five areas of concern: genealogy, areal distribution, domains of language usage,
dynamics of language usage and phonetic data representation.
Visualization mechanisms were implemented by means of JavaScript tools, as well as available
JavaScript libraries. However, the nature of the data dictated the need to modify the standard
functionality of JavaScript libraries and the layout embedded in them, so that the representation in each
case could adequately meet our tasks. The layout of visual representations is developed with the help
of HTML and CSS, namely HTML5 and CSS3. More detailed guidelines on a visual representation of
our resource can be found at: https://minlang.site/about#tech-materials.
7. References
[1] H. Kloss , G. D. McConnell (Eds.), The written languages of the world: A survey of the degree and
modes of use, volume 1: The Americas, Laval University Press, Quebec, 1978.
[2] P. Padmanabha, B. P. Mahapatra, V. S. Verma, G. D. McConnell (Eds.), The written languages of
the world: A survey of the degree and modes of use, volume II: India (2 books), Laval University
Press, Quebec, 1989.
[3] H. Kloss, A. Verdoodt, G. D. McConnell (Eds.), The written languages of the world: A survey of
the degree and modes of use, volume III: Western Europe, Laval University Press, Quebec, 1989&
[4] G. D. McConnell, Tan Ke Rang (Eds.), The written languages of the world: A survey of the degree
and modes of use, volume IV: China (2 books), Laval University Press, Quebec, 1995.
[5] G. D. McConnell, Les Langues Écrites du Monde: Afrique Occidentale, Les Presses de l'Université
Laval, Québec, 1998.
[6] G. D. McConnell, V. M. Solntsev, V. Yu. Mikhal'chenko (Eds.), Pis'mennye yazyki mira:
Rossiĭskaya Federatsiya. Sotsiolingvisticheskaya entsiklopediya {The written languages of the
world: Russian Federation. A sociolinguistic encyclopedia}, volume 1, Academia, Moscow, 2000.
[7] V. Yu. Mikhal'chenko (Ed.), Pis'mennye yazyki mira: Yazyki Rossijskoj Federatsii.{The written
languages of the world: Russian Federation.}, volume 2, Academia, Moscow, 2003.
[8] V. P. Neroznak (Ed.), Yazyki narodov Rossii: Krasnaya kniga. Entsiklopedicheskij slovar'-
spravochnik {Languages of the peoples of Russia: The Red Book. An encyclopedic dictionary.},
2nd ed., Academia, Moscow, 2002.
[9] V. Yu. Mikhal'chenko (Ed.), Yazyk i obshchestvo. Entsiklopediya {Language and society. An
encyclopedia.}, «Аzbukovnik», Moscow, 2016.
[10] O. A. Kazakevich, M. I. Vorontsova, E. L. Kliachko, K. K. Polivanov, Multi-Functional Web-Site
“Minority Languages Of Siberia As Our Cultural Heritage”, in: Materials accepted for publication
on the website of the 19th International Scientific Conference on Computational Linguistics
"Dialogue 2013", Moscow, 2013 (electronic publication). URL: http://www.dialog-
21.ru/digests/dialog2013/materials/pdf/KazakevichOA.pdf.
[11] Drupal: an open source content management software written in PHP and distributed under the
GNU General Public License. URL: https://www.drupal.org/.
[12] N. Dobrushina, D. Staferova, A. Belokon (Eds.), Atlas of Multilingualism in Dagestan Online,
Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, HSE, 2017. URL: https://multidagestan.com, accessed on
2020-11-19.
[13] Leaflet: an open source library written in JavaScript designed for displaying maps on websites.
URL: https://leafletjs.com/.
[14] D3: a JavaScript library for creating dynamic interactive data visualizations in web browsers. URL:
https://d3js.org/.
[15] Chart: an open source JavaScript library for data visualization that supports 8 chart types. URL:
https://www.chartjs.org/.
[16] Datawrapper: a tool for creating interactive maps and diagrams. URL:
https://www.datawrapper.de/.
[17] M. P. Lewis, G. Simons, Assessing Endangerment: Expanding Fishman’s GIDS, in: Revue
Roumaine de Linguistique/Romanian Review of Linguistics, volume 2, 2010.
[18] MediaElement: a powerful JS/HTML5 audio and video library that creates a unified view for media
files. URL: https://www.mediaelementjs.com/.
[19] OwlCarousel: a jQuery plugin, which allows to create sliders and carousels. URL:
https://owlcarousel2.github.io/OwlCarousel2/.
[20] J. Saarikivi, The divergence of Proto-Uralic and its offspring. A descendent reconstruction, in: M.
Bakro-Nagy , J. Laakso, E. Skribnik (Eds), Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages, Oxford
University Press, forthcoming.
Appendix 1
Language page structure
Language page section Section content Technical implementation
Basic information in tag The section contains 4 tags: Each tag occupies a separate
format “Native speakers”, “Area”, cell in the database, which
“Family” and “EGIDS Status” makes it possible to use the
(for more details on the EGIDS tag as a filter or a criterion
scale, see [17]). for sorting. At the layout
level, the tags are packaged
in a separate HTML block,
which receives a graphic
design different from the rest
of the text using CSS styles.
Brief information The section contains a brief The page contains only a few
introductory text that provides lines of text and the "read
information about areal more" button, which unfolds
distribution, number of the rest of the text field below.
speakers, dialect structure, In the unfolded state, the
traditional lifestyle of the "collapse text" button appears
people, etc. after the text. After clicking on
it, the text collapses to its
original position.
This mechanism is built on
JavaScript. The layout is
performed using HTML/CSS.
The graphical solution
intuitively allows the user to
understand how the
mechanism works.
Genealogy The section describes the See §4.1.
genetic affiliation of the
language and its dialect
structure. The genealogy is
visualized as an interactive
diagram.
Areal distribution The section provides the areal See §4.2.
characteristics of the language,
reflected on the interactive
map.
Language contacts and The section describes the The section is technically
multilingualism languages that are (or implemented in the same way
historically have been) in as the section “Brief
contact with the language in information” (see above).
question, as well as the
multilingualism among its
speakers.
Language functioning The section provides the At the database level, each
following information about section element occupies a
the language: legal status, separate cell, which allows to
writing system, language work with individual data
standardization. The domains elements, as well as to apply
of language usage are also them as filter and sort criteria.
described here. This section is The section "Language
one of the most important functioning" is divided into 4
sections of the site. subsections: "Legal status",
"Writing system", "Language
standardization", and
"Domains of language usage".
These subsections are
represented by tabs, each of
which contains a corresponding
subsection. The tabs are
designed in a separate HTML
block, highlighted in color.
Inside the block, a panel with
the names of four subsections
is displayed. These subsections
serve as buttons for switching
between the tabs.
The button corresponding to an
open tab is highlighted in the
active color.
The content of only one active
tab is displayed under the
button panel.
This solution allows to present
a large amount of information
in a compact way, as well as to
immediately provide the list of
all the subsections.
The mechanism is built by
means of JavaScript and CSS.
See §4.3 on the domains of
language usage.
Dynamics of language usage The section provides See §4.4.
information on the changes in
the language usage based on
the census data (in the format
of an interactive diagram) and
on the degree of the language
vitality at present.
Language structure The section provides brief The section is presented as a
information on the language grid of four blocks
structure within 4 main levels corresponding to the
(phonetics, morphology, subsections "Phonetics",
syntax, vocabulary). This "Morphology", "Syntax" and
section is planned to be "Vocabulary". Each block
expanded in the future. contains the name of the
subsection, a short description,
and the "more details" button,
which opens the corresponding
information in a pop-up
window. The pop-up window
mechanism is implemented
using JavaScript, and the visual
solution is implemented using
CSS styles.
See §4.5 on the phonetic data.
Language research The section provides The data are presented in a
information on the history of table with two columns. This
language research and format was chosen for compact
indicates the relevant experts data representation. The left
in this language and the column contains the following
centers where the language information: a photo (if absent,
research is conducted. an abstract image in the form
of a human silhouette is used),
the full name and the affiliation
of the expert, and a link to the
expert’s personal page. The
right column contains a
summary of the expert’s
research activities.
This mechanism is
implemented by means of
HTML/CSS.
Main publications The publications are grouped Information is presented in the
into the following sections: "accordion" format used in the
grammars and grammatical web layout for compact data
essays, dictionaries, selected representation.
works on certain aspects of This section contains a list of
grammar, publications of texts clickable titles. Only one
in the language, works on header can remain open: when
sociolinguistics and ethnology. you click on any title in this
view, the previous open one is
closed.
This mechanism is
implemented using JavaScript
and CSS3.
Resources The section provides links to The data are presented as a
available electronic resources text field and a table with two
(corpora and text collections, columns. This format was
dictionaries, etc.). chosen for compact data
representation.
The left column contains the
following information: the logo
(if available) and the name
(with a link to the resource).
The right column contains brief
information about the
resource.
This mechanism is technically
implemented using HTML/CSS.
Administrative and public The section provides The information is presented as
support information on the a text field and a table with two
administrative and / or public columns. This format was
support for the language, chosen for compact data
including the support from representation. The left column
non-governmental contains the following
organizations and language information: a logo (if
activists. available) or a photo (in the
case of a person) and a name
or a full name (in the case of a
person). The right column
provides a summary of their
activities.
This mechanism is technically
implemented using HTML/CSS.
Data source The section indicates the The data is wrapped in an
experts who provided the data individual HTML block and is
on the language. stylistically highlighted in color.
The implementation is built on
HTML/CSS tools.
Text The section contains video and Video files are integrated from
/ or audio recordings of the YouTube. The website has its
texts with transcript and own channel. Audio files can be
morphological annotation. integrated with SoundCloud. A
Each text is accompanied by corresponding template is
detailed metadata (general written for this purpose. Audio
data about the text, files can also be uploaded
information about the directly to the template on the
recording, transcript and website in OGG, MP3, or WAV
morphological annotation). formats. In this case, the library
MediaElement.js is responsible
for displaying the files [18].
Metadata markup for the texts
is presented as separate HTML
blocks, stylized in such a way
that each element and its
caption are distinguished.
At the database level, each
element has a separate cell.
The transcript and
morphological annotation are
uploaded as PDF files. This
block is implemented using
JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
SoundCloud and YouTube
embed integration tools as well
as the library MediaElement.js
were used in the development
process.
Photographs The section contains In this section we employ a
photographs of native "carousel", which is one of the
speakers, settlements, well-known ways of displaying
traditional household items, images. It consists of multiple
clothing, etc. slides and navigation elements
between them. Each slide
contains an image and a
caption. Only one slide is
shown at a time. There are
buttons on the right and on the
left sides of it to switch
between the slides.
There is a panel with dots
under the slide. The number of
dots corresponds to the
number of slides. When a dot is
clicked, the user is transferred
to the corresponding slide in
the array, and the dot is
highlighted in the active color.
When you click on a slide, the
image opens without cropping.
Its original proportions are
preserved, although it is limited
in weight and scale.
The mechanism is
implemented using the jQuery
library owl.carousel.js [19]. The
markup and styling are
performed by means of
HTML/CSS.
Image files with .png, .gif, .jpg
or .jpeg resolutions and any
aspect ratio can be uploaded to
the template. The images are
then passed through a program
that automatically processes
them for displaying in the
carousel.