Sprachbund as Metric Space: Quantifying Linguistic Traces of Convergences and Diffusions in Synchrony

This paper attempts to conceptualize the sprachbund “linguistic area” as a metric space corresponding to the Federation of Indian languages belonging to the new Indo-Aryan language family. Synchronically, a linguistic area embodies the traces of ongoing convergences and diffusions which are quantifiable. Organizing those quantifiable convergences and diffusions, as attested in linguistic items, is central to our conceptualization of the metric space. Linguistic items for one such universally shared concept are compared to measure their relative distances and differences while interpreting the concept of sprachbund anew.