Indosphere is a
subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman languages as defined by linguist James Matisoff,
which includes languages that are typologically and morphologically a closeness
to Indo-Aryan languages. It is commonly used in areal linguistics in contrast
with Sinosphere, which refers to Tibeto-Burman languages that bear a closeness
to the Chinese language.
The Tibeto-Burman
family of languages, which extends over a huge geographic range, is
characterized by great typological diversity, comprising languages that range
from the highly tonal, monosyllabic, analytic type with practically no
afflixational morphology, like Loloish, to marginally tonal or atonal languages
with complex systems of verbal agreement morphology, like the Kiranti group of Nepal. This
diversity is partly to be explained in terms of areal influences from Chinese
on the one hand and, Indo-Aryan languages on the other. Two large
subgroupings formed by areal contact can be distinguished within Tibeto-Burman
— the Sinosphere and the Indosphere. These spheres were proposed by
Matisoff as a combination of cultural and linguistic features. A buffer zone
between them as a third group was proposed by Kristine A. Hildebrandt, followed
by B. Bickel and J. Nichols. Matisoff grouped the languages in the family
into the Sinosphere and the Indosphere due to the linguistic and political
influence of China and India, respectively, on the languages. Languages of
the Indosphere are spoken in the region where Indic languages are the
dominant.
Some languages
and cultures firmly belong to one or the other. For example, the Munda and
Khasi branches of Austro-Asiatic languages, the Tibeto-Burman languages of Eastern Nepal, and much of Kamarupan branch of
Tibeto-Burman, which most notably includes Meitei (Manipuri) are Indospheric;
while the Hmong–Mien family, the Kam–Sui branch of Kadai, the Loloish branch of
Tibeto-Burman, and Vietnamese (Viet–Muong) are Sinospheric. Some other
languages, like Thai and Tibetan, have been influenced by both Chinese and
Indian culture at different historical periods. Still other linguistic
communities are so remote geographically that they have escaped significant
influence from either. For example, the Aslian branch of Mon–Khmer in Malaya,
or the Nicobarese branch of Mon–Khmer in the Nicobar Islands of the Indian
Ocean show little influence by Sinosphere or Indosphere. The Bodish
languages and Kham languages are characterized by hybrid prosodic properties
akin to related Indospheric languages towards the west and also Sinospheric
languages towards the east. Some languages of the Kiranti group in the
Indosphere rank among the morphologically most complex languages of Asia.
Indian cultural,
intellectual, and political influence — especially that of Devanagari writing
system — began to penetrate both insular and peninsular Southeast Asia about
2000 years ago. Indic writing systems were adopted first by Austronesians, like
Javanese and Cham, and Austroasiatics, like Khmer and Mon, then by Tai (Siamese
and Lao) and Tibeto-Burmans (Pyu, Burmese, and Karen). Indospheric languages
are also found in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), defined as the region
encompassing Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand,
as well as parts of Burma,
Peninsular Malaysia and Yunnan.
Related scripts are also found in South East Asian islands ranging from Sumatra,
Java, Bali, south Sulawesi and most of the
Philippines. The learned components of the vocabularies of Khmer, Mon,
Burmese and Thai/Lao consist of words of Pali or Sanskrit origin. Indian
influence also spread north to the Himalayan region. Tibetan has used
Devanagari writing since 600 AD, but has preferred to calque new religious and
technical vocabulary from native morphemes rather than borrowing Indian
ones. The Cham empires, known collectively as Champa, which were founded
around the end of 2nd century AD, belonged directly to Indosphere of influence,
rather than to the Sinosphere which shaped so much of Vietnamese culture and by
which Chams were influenced later and indirectly.
Languages in the
"Sinosphere" (roughly Southeast Asia)
tend to be analytic, with little morphology, monosyllabic or sesquisyllabic
lexical structures, extensive compounding, complex tonal systems, and serial
verb constructions. Languages in the "Indosphere" (roughly the
Himalayas and South Asia) tend to be more aggluntinative, with polysyllabic
structures, extensive case and verb morphology, and detailed markings of
interpropositional relationships. Manange (like other Tamangic languages)
is an interesting case to examine in this regard, as geographically it fits
squarely in the "Indospheric" Himalayas, but typologically it shares
more features with the "Sinospheric" languages. Tibeto-Burman
languages spoken in the Sinosphere tend to be more isolating, while those
spoken in the Indosphere tend to be more morphologically complex.
Many languages in
the western side of the Sino-Tibetan family, which includes the Tibeto-Burman
languages, show significant typological resemblances with other languages of
the South Asia, which puts them in the group
of Indosphere. They often have heavier syllables than found in the east, while
tone systems, though attested, are not as frequent. Indospheric languages
are often toneless and/or highly suffixal. Often there is considerable
inflectional morphology, from fully developed case marking systems to extensive
pronominal morphology found on the verb. These languages generally mark a
number of types of inter-casual relationships and have distinct construction involving
verbal auxiliaries. Languages of the Indosphere typically display retroflex
stop consonants, postsentential relative clauses and the extended
grammaticalization of the verb say. In Indospheric languages, such as the
Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeast India and Nepal, for example, the
development of relative pronouns and corelative structures, as well as of
retroflex initial consonants, is found often.
