Center versus periphery is a linguistic theory put forward by Japanese folklorist Yanagita Kunio explaining the usage of certain words of a language in some regions while not in others. The theory may also explain the existence of other cultural

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 features, or lack thereof, in differing regions; though it was specifically created to address linguistic differences.

Overview

In general, the theory states that new words, often synonyms, are created in influential areas and cultural centers. Over time, these words gradually move outward to less culturally influential areas in a ripple pattern. Over time, the new words may travel a great distance. However, during their slow progression outwards from the cultural center, new words are also being created and gradually moving outwards. New words may not have the "momentum" necessary to propagate to all areas where the language is used. Typically, areas that are farthest away from a cultural center will possess only the oldest form of a word and no others, though the new words often still remain active in the cultural center where they were created, along with other synonym variations.

Origin

This theory was postulated by Kunio Yanagita

Kunio Yanagita

was a Japanese scholar who is often known as the father of Japanese native folkloristics, or minzokugaku.He was born in Fukusaki, Hyōgo Prefecture. After graduating with a degree in law from Tokyo Imperial University, he became employed as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce...

 to explain the existence of some words in cultural centers, such as the capital of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, during various stages of the nation's history, and the lack of those such words in non-cultural centers. It is not certain if his postulate was the first to describe such cultural patterns in general; or merely with respect to language.

Example

One phenomenon the theory attempts to explain, for example, is the Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 word for snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

, particularly prior to the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

. In Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, the capital of Japan around the time of the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, there were as many as four different words for snail: dedemushi (ででむし), maimai (まいまい), katatsumuri (かたつむり), and tsuburi (つぶり). In the areas outside the capital, not all of these words existed. As one traveled farther from the capital, the number of synonyms employed decreased. In the farthest reaches of Japan in the North and the South, typically only one word for "snail" was used. Coincidentally

Coincidence

A coincidence is an event notable for its occurring in conjunction with other conditions, e.g. another event. As such, a coincidence occurs when something uncanny, accidental and unexpected happens under conditions named, but not under a defined relationship...

, often the same single word existed in both places (in this case tsuburi (つぶり)), despite the great distance between the regions. Some linguists have taken this existence of some words in the farthest regions from cultural centers as an indication of the age of certain of these words.