An email from David Goldberg, Acting Director, MLA Foreign Language Programs and ADFL, in reference to the MLA Language Map discussed here last week:
Thank you for the posting on Language Log. We have had a number of comments about our too-casual use of the term density and we are grateful to have been alerted to this. We have changed the wording (it now reads Numbers of Speakers), and hope that an anticipated expansion of the site will include a reflection of actual density of speakers, that is, numbers of speakers of each language in relation to the entire population of each county or zip code.
So, an immediate terminological improvement, and soon, more useful information! It's a wonderful world...
Posted by Mark Liberman at June 21, 2004 03:14 PM