(Masaryk University)
Mongolia, Korea, and Vietnam in a Wider Comparative Perspective:
Selected Environmental Impacts on Languages and Cultures Across Asia
68th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Bangkok 2026
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief report on ongoing project work comparing Mongolia, Korea, and Vietnam, with a special focus on environmental impacts on ethnic processes, language spread, and religious influence. A wider comparison of conditions in the Mongolian areas, the Korean Peninsula, and Southeast Asia reveals specific environmental patterns, applicable also to India and other parts of Eurasia.
Differences in natural conditions and environmental pressures between distant, yet still interrelated areas co-influenced the spread of past populations, the gradual movements of people in an East-West direction, and especially from the Eurasian greenbelt to the south. The interrelation between environmental impacts and the emergence of supra-tribal multi-ethnic polities also follows regular patterns, regarding the north-south distribution of ethnic groups and the vectors of their political unification. General conditions in Sprachbunds relate to the constitution of specific language clusters influenced by tributary exchanges and the spread of religions or scripts, creating linguistic and religious complexes. Both macro-history and the wide scope of this paper contribute to non-Sinocentric interpretations, as presented patterns are general and valid even outside of Chinese, Inner Asian, or Altaic tributary networks.
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