Indosphere

Dark blue: the Indian subcontinent, Light Blue: Other countries culturally linked to India, notably Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia, Purple: Regions not included in Indosphere, but with significant current or historical Indian cultural influence, notably Afghanistan, Tibet, Yunnan and Baluchistan region.

Indosphere, as defined by linguist James Matisoff, refers to areas of Indian linguistic and cultural influence in Southeast Asia.[1] It is commonly used in areal linguistics to contrast with Sinosphere, which refers to the cultures and languages influenced by proximity to China.

1 Definition and context
2 See also
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links

Definition and context

Indosphere languages covers most of India and Pakistan, as well as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and much of Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) (defined as the region encompassing Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, and 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 parts of the Philippines.[2] Cultures and languages in MESA have long been in contact with adjoining cultures of India and China and thus influenced by them. Depending upon the dominant political, religious and cultural influence, linguists and anthropologists divide MSEA into the two distinct classes, Indosphere and Sinosphere.[3] Thus Indosphere is defined by N. J. Enfield as "a socio-political sphere of MSEA, subsuming those countries, cultures, and languages that have historically come under influence of the politics, culture, religion, and languages of India (notably, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma)."[3] According to Enfield, long term lexical diffusion between languages belonging to five major language families, in addition to genealogical inheritance, has resulted in extensive parallels in linguistic structures of the languages of the region. [3]