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APHG / Unit 3-2: Languages / Maya Green 1A

Terms in this set (97)

language
system of communication through speech using shared collection of sounds
language-migration relationship
distribution of languages today is result of past migrations
isolation-language relationship
if a group speaking one language becomes separated into 2 or more subgroups, the separated subgroups will develop different languages over time if isolation is maintained
p147, according to Ethnologue how many languages are there in world today? how many are spoken by at least 10 M people?
7102 languages total, 90 spoken by at least 10M people
institutional language
language used in education, work, mass media, and government
official language
language used by the government for laws, reports, and public objects
literary (Tradition) language
language that is written as well as spoken
p147 map, name the 4 main writing systems in the world today
Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic (Russia), Latin
developing language
language spoken in daily use by people of all ages (literary tradition may not be widely distributed)
vigorous language
language spoken in daily use by people of all ages, but lacks a literary tradition
language family, branch & group
lang. family - a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history
lang. branch - a collection within a family related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago
lang. group - collection within a branch that share a recent common origin and similar grammar/vocab
Indo-European language family p149
origin: prehistoric Russian Steppes
% of world speakers: 46.5%
dominant: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian
Sino-Tibetan language family pp148-151
origin: China
% of world speakers: 20%
dominant: Mandarin
Chinese Putonghua, p150
Mandarin Chinese - "common speech"
Southeast Asia language families & dominant languages
Austronesian origin: Indonesia 6%
Austonesian dominant: Javanese (Indonesia), Malay, Tagalog (Philippines)
Austro-Asiatic origin SE Asia - 1.6%
Austro-Asiatic dominant: Vietnamese
Thai-Kadai origin: Philippines? or Tibet? - <1%
Thai-Kadai dominant: Thai, Lao
East Asia language families (dominant languages are same)
Japanese & Korean - >2%
Other Asian language families
Dravidian origin: S. India & Sri Lanka - 3.6%
Dravidian dominant: Tamil, Telugu
Altaic origin: Central Asia mtns - 2.6%
Altaic dominant: Turkish, Uzbek, Azeri
Uralic origin: N. Ural mtns - <1%
Uralic dominant: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian
African language families & dominant languages
Afro-Asiatic origin: Arabia & N Africa - 6%
Afro-Asiatic dominant: Arabic, Hausa, Berber, Hebrew
Niger-Congo origin: central Africa - 6.9%
Niger-Congo dominant: Yoruba, Igbo, Swahili
Nilo-Saharan origin: N. Saharan Africa near Nile - <1%
Nilo-Saharan dominant: no dominant, small language family
Andes-Amazon language families p153
Quechuan: Peru, Western Andes
Aymara: Eastern: Bolivia, Central Andes
describe the world distribution of Germanic languages
Scandinavian countries, English- speaking countries
What geographic processes led to the emergence of different Germanic languages?
isolation, relocation migration, nationalism, cultural identity
describe the world distribution of Romance languages
Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Romania & Moldova, and their colonies
describe the world distribution of Germanic languages
repeat
describe the world distribution of (Aryan) Indo-Iranian languages
Southwest Asia and India
What are the main & official languages of India?
official: Hindi, English
business/interregional: ?
regional: ?
How exactly are Hindi and Urdu different? p155
Hindi: written in Devanagari
Urdu: written with Arabic alphabet
describe the world distribution of Baltic & Slavic languages
Baltic, where found?
Slavic, where found?
How did Russian come to dominate the Slavic region?
domination of former Russian Empire & recent USSR; both used Russian to unify for trade, government & military
What happened to the Serb-Croat language after the fracturing of Yugoslavia in the 1990s?
groups (Croats, Serbs, Bosnians, Montenegrins) sought to emphasize their national & cultural pride by differentiating the language for each (= Bosnian, Croat, Serb, Montenegrin instead of Serb-Croat)
How are Croat & Bosnian different than Serb & Montenegrin?
C/B use Roman (English) alphabet, S/M use Cyrillic (Russian/Greek) alphabet
Slavic languages are actually quite similar to each other. What is the stressed (geographic) difference between various Slavic languages today? p155
desire for national pride, unity & cultural identity, wariness of other Slavic states, difficult regional history
Vulgar Latin
form of Latin spoken by Roman provinces
Why were the versions of Latin spoken in various parts of the Roman Empire different? How did regional forms of Latin become separate languages after collapse of Roman Empire?
-versions of Latin: prior regional languages shifted Latin spoken
-collapse of Latin: collapse of Roman Emp broke travel/trade/communication causing further isolation
-invasion of newer barbarian languages into regions also vurther differentiated Romance languages
How did Romance languages diffuse worldwide?
Spanish, French & Portuguese imperial colonization & cultural influence
What was the effect of the 1493 Treaty of Tordesillas on Romance language diffusion? p156
Resulted in the differing Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking regions of Central and South America
What was the theorized common ancestor/origin of Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Indo-Iranian, and Romance languages?
common ancestor: Latin
Why is it so difficult to verify the relationship between these prehistoric language groups?
prehistoric = no written records to evaluate... can only assess language through linguistics
How have linguists been able to prove relationships between these languages without written historical proof? p156
common words related to the physical environment
Nomadic-Warrior (war/Kurgan) Theory p157
Kurgan migration in search of grasslands for their animals, they conquered Europe and South Asia
Sedentary Farmer (peace/Anatolian) Theory p157
2,000 years before Kurgans, spread from modern day Turkey through agriculture
Did the earliest Indo-European speakers diffuse the language through war/conquest or peaceful sharing of food/agriculture?
War seems more realistic
Celtic/Gaelic language family p158
Celtic origin: Tribes called the Celts
Celtic distribution today: Cornwall, highlands of Scotland and Wales
How did ancient Old English develop? How did medieval Modern English develop? pp158-159
-invasions of Angles/Saxons/Jutes into Celtic areas = blended Anglo-Saxon language
-medieval invasion of Norman French = blended Modern English
How did English diffuse worldwide?
Colonialism/Imperialism
Blended languages, like Spanglish, develop through what geographic processes?
Migration/Mixing
Where would Franglais be found today? Where would Spanglish be found today? Where would Denglish be found today?
FR: France, Quebec, other French-speaking areas
SP: US_Mex border region, especially Texas
DE: Amish regions, German universities, German websites
How does English (as the main international language of business) affect diffusion of popular culture? p160
Eng encourages diffusion of Eng pop culture, and Eng pop culture encourages use of Eng
How does English affect local non-English language identity in other countries? p160
other cultures might see Eng as damaging to local language, culture, customs, traditions, and might weaken cultural ties of local children, local cultural arts & literature, local entertainment
lingua franca
a language of international communication
vernacular (find online)
language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region
pidgin language
a simplified form of a language
name some important lingua franca languages p160
Swahili (East Africa), Hindi (South Asia), Indonesian (Southeast Asia), Russian (former Soviet Union)
How does the dominance of English worldwide affect the language skills of Americans & US companies? p161
because there is little pressure for Americans to learn other languages, multilingualism in US is very low, weak language skills = hurts ability of US companies to spread to other countries
How is the worldwide dominance of English related to entertainment, internet, communications, and social media? p161
the dominance of English supports the success of English pop cultural products and forms... and the widespread consumption of English pop culture further diffuses the English language
logograms
symbols that represent words or meaningful parts of words
official language p162
used by the government to enact legislation and the conduct other public business
How many countries have English as their official language? How many official languages does the EU recognize?
Eng: 58 countries
EU: 24 languages
Analyze the 5-25 Status of English as Official Language map on p163... is there any pattern of distribution?
States where English is not the official language lie on or near the border
What are the pros & cons of the US making English the official language?
PROS: 58 countries already have Eng as official, it is an important symbol of national unity, Eng is essential for living in US, non-Eng services is expensive
CONS: law is unnecessary/Eng is already primary language, govt should not interfere in language rights, Eng-only is discriminatory to non-Eng speakers/immigrants
dialect
a regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation
subdialect
a subdivision of a dialect
How do dialects & subdialects develop? p164
isolation, relocation migration, regional cultural identity, environmental differences, history & politics
What are the different circumstances of dialects? p164
vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation
standard dialect
a dialect that is well established and widely recognized as the most acceptable for government, business, education, and mass communication
Received Pronunciation (RP)
the dialect commonly used by politicians, broadcasters, and actors
Why are there so many dialects in the UK? p165
isolation & relocation diffusion, different mixes of origin languages, regionalism, historical factors, environmental factors, political factors & policies, modern use of communications & RP policy
isogloss
a word-usage boundary
How did English become the dominant language of the US? p166
earliest settlers spoke English, and through relocation & contagious diffusion came to spread and dominate US today
Even though there is a recognized "standard American" English used in the US, why are there still regional variations of words & phrases? p166-167
isolation, regional & folk culture, environmental & ethnic differences, different regional foods & crops & animals & sports
AAVE & Ebonic dialect... and origin
English influenced by the forced migration from Africa
Why is the reference to & use of Ebonics in teaching discouraged in the US? Should it be? p167
-history of racism & ethnic tensions relate to references to Ebonics... encouraging standardized Eng is important, but recognizing origin of differences in ethnic groups is also important - should it be? depends... be careful if it is discussed to be sensitive to ethnic & historical differences
Why/how is Appalachian English discouraged?
not considered standard Eng, limited folk culture, not taught in schools, considered "bad" Eng
bidialectic
ability to speak two dialects
creole
a language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated
What geographic processes have strengthened standard languages & suppressed regional dialects? p168
globalization, pop culture diffusion, standardized education, literature, entertainment, social media
Wht would some regions resist standardizing of their local dialects, accents or local languages? p168
To preserve local culture
Name some important Romance dialects that would like to be considered separate languages. Why is language status important to some cultures? p168
Catalan, Occitan
Why do governments seek to promote the standardization of their official/main languages?
unifying factor for trade, government, education, nationalism, identity
How has standardization of French, Spanish & Portuguese affected cultural global diffusion of pop culture from those countries? p169
easier diffusion and global interaction
Give some gender differences found in language. p169
-genitive use (masculine & feminine)
-usage of men vs women
-speaking, status & respect
Describe Switzerland's "institutionalized diversity" of languages. p170
Switzerland peacefully has 4 official languages and a decentralized government
Describe Canada's "bilingual autonomy" found in Quebec. p170
French speakers are clustered in Quebec
How/why did Quebec receive (French) language autonomy? p170
Parti Quebecois has threatened to secede from Canada if French cultural identity was not protected nationally = Canadian Bilingualism Laws
What compromise did Nigeria make to relieve tension between language groups there? Besides language differences, what makes Nigeria's regionalism even more difficult to address? p170-171
centralized capital cities, fairer regional election laws... tensions between Christian SW, Islamic NE, and regional tribal religions
How are Belgium's regions of Walloonia & Flanders different? How did Belgium address regional tensions between Walloonia and Flanders? Has it been successful? p171
Walloonia:
Flanders:
-centralized capital city, regional autonomy (regional parliaments & control of local affairs)
- not very successful, still regional tensions & problems
List some countries that have successfully addressed regional language tensions. List some countries that still struggle with regional languages tensions>
successful: Switzerland, Canada
struggling: Nigeria, Belgium
How many of the world's 7,102 languages are considered endangered (by other more dominant languages) by the UN?
2,348
dying language
the childbearing generation is not capable of speaking the language to their children
troubled language
...
world regions concentrated with troubled/dying languages p172
South Pacific, Latin America, and North America
How has English threatened the survival of endangered languages in Australia, NZ and the South Pacific? p172-173
official status, media, technology, literature, education... tiny languages cannot compete sometimes
What types of languages are endangered or dying in the US? Why? p173
Native American languages, younger speakers are not taught
How have the the UK and Ireland tried to preserve & protect Celtic languages there? p176-177
language classes in schools, language protection organizations, services in Celtic languages, celebrations of Celtic history & culture, official protected status, limits in use of English in some regions, regional/local government policies
extinct language
a language that is no longer in use
Describe how Israel redirected & redeveloped Hebrew into a growing language. p178
when Israel was formed in 1948 and chose to "redo" Hebrew as official language, govt rebuilt language for modern use
What geographic processes could lead to creation of a new language? p178-179
migration, isolation, relocation diffusion, nationalism, cultural identity, basic needs, means of teaching language to others
Name a language that was created in modern times to address a specific need or group.
Hebrew
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