Linguistic Ecology Today environmental isolation is no longer the linguistic force it once was Inhospitable lands and islands are reachable by airplanes

Linguistic Ecology

Today environmental isolation is no longer the linguistic force it once was

Inhospitable lands and islands are reachable by airplanes

Marshes and forests are being drained and cleared by farmers

The world is interactive

The environment guides migration

Migrants were often attracted to new lands that seemed environmentally similar to their homelands

They could pursue adaptive strategies known to themGermanic Indo-Europeans chose familiar temperate zones in America, New Zealand, and AustraliaSemitic peoples rarely spread outside arid and semiarid climatesAncestors of modern Hungarians left grasslands of inner Eurasia for new homes in the grassy Alföld, one of the few prairie areas of Europe


Environmental barriers and natural routeways guided linguistic groups along certain paths

Indo-Europeans traveled through low mountain passes to the Indian subcontinent, avoiding the Himalayas and barren Deccan Plateau

In India today, the Indo-European/Dravidian language boundary seems to approximate an ecological boundary


Mountain barriers frequently serve as linguistic borders

In part of the Alps, speakers of German and Italian live on opposite sides of a major ridge

Portions of mountain rim along the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent form the border between Semitic and Indo-European tongues


Linguistic borders that follow such physical features tend to be stable and endure for thousands of years

Language borders that cross plains and major routes of communication are frequently unstable — Germanic-Slavic boundary on the North European Plain

The Mosaic of Languages

Linguistic Culture Regions

Linguistic Diffusion

Linguistic Ecology

Culturo-Linguistic Integration

Linguistic Landscapes

Urumchi, China

Urumchi is the capital of Xinjian Uyghur Autonomous Region. Uyghurs are one of China’s 55 minority groups. Because this resource-rich area is also a strategically significant borderland,

Urumchi, China

official policy has been one of Sinicization whereby Chinese have been encouraged to move to the region.

However, most of the Chinese are concentrated in the capital city where

Urumchi, China

sinage is in two languages.Ugyhur, written in Arabic script, belongs to the Altaic language family while Chinese, written in characters is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family.Together, they produce an alien linguistic landscape for most visitors.

Language is intertwined with all aspects of culture

Comparative social, demographic, political, and technological characteristics groups are needed to understand the linguistic map

Linguistic cultural integration can reflect the dominance of one group over another — a dominance based in culture

Technology and linguistic dominance

Technological superiority is usually involved in allowing one group to gain dominance over another

Importance of the development of alphabetsCertain cultures became more complex and dominant

Written languages advanced at the expense of illiterate cultures

Were invariably the invention of agricultural societies

Greek, Latin, and Chinese, along with other tongues, enjoyed early advantages because of literacy


Importance of the development of alphabets

Facilitated record keeping, allowing government to developWith empire building, languages tend to spread with imperial expansionImperial expansion of European and U.S. power altered the linguistic patterns among millions of people

Superimposed Indo-European tongues in the tropics and subtropicsAreas most affected were Asia, Africa, and the Austronesian island world


In South America, the expanding empires of Spain and Portugal clashed in the fifteenth century

Signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494

Spain received control over all colonial lands west of a certain meridian

Portugal gained control over lands east of the line

Brazil eventually became Portuguese speaking

In most of the rest of South America Spanish prevailed


When imperial nations gave up their colonial empires, their languages remained

English is still spoken in much of Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines, and certain areas of the Pacific islandsFrench persists in north, west and central Africa, Madagascar, and PolynesiaIn most areas English and French function as languages of the educated elite and of government, commerce, and higher educationOften hold status as legal languages, serving has link languagesHelp hold countries together where native languages are multiple and divisive


Affect of transportation technology on geography of languages

Ships, railroads, and highways usually spread languages of cultural groups who build them

Sometimes spells doom for the speech of peoples whose lands are opened to outside contacts

Trans-Siberian Railroad spread Russian language eastward to Pacific Ocean

Presently highway construction into Brazil’s Amazonian interior threatens Indian languages

The social morale model

Model built by geographer Charles Withers

Explains the process of language loss incurred by conquered cultural groups

Placed in a lower social class

Lose pride in their language and culture, eventually abandoning both

Education system based solely on socially dominant language produces bilingualism

Monoglots, or persons speaking one tongue decline

The social morale model

If conquered group literate, they will usually start to become illiterate in their traditional language

Often no legal or religious status is accorded the conquered languageOld way of speech considered primitive and its use socially degradingDenying the oppressed language access to broadcast facilities can hasten process of decline

United States reveals decline of languages other than English

Native Americans subjected to linguistic assaults from dominant cultureIndian children taken from families and placed in boarding schoolsIndian children were forbidden to speak their own languagesIn 1910, one out of every four Americans could fluently speak some language other than English (14 percent could in 1990)Only Spanish speakers have had long-term success in keeping their speech

Morale is not always broken by conquest and subsequent discrimination

Greeks have suffered periods of rule by Romans and Turks

Have kept their language

Remained convinced their culture was superior

Chinese absorbed Mongol invaders and made Chinese out of them

Sometimes languages of conquered and conqueror blend

The economic development model

Also developed by Charles Withers

Industrialization accompanied by urbanization breaks up social structure needed to perpetuate an indigenous language

Transition from subsistence farmer to factory laborer is destructive to minority tongues

Particularly destructive when factory language is not that of the farm


Industrialization tends to draw population from rural linguistic refuge area leaving fewer speakers of minority languages behind —process called the clearance model

If industrial development occurs in refuge area, speakers of dominant language are drawn in producing a changeover model — native speakers are overwhelmed by intrusion of foreigners


Plight of Welsh language in Great BritainIllustrates Withers’ social morale, economic development, clearance, and changeover models

Now stands at the threshold of extinction

Speakers were long denigrated

British educational system promoted English

Urbanization and industrialization knocked holes in spatial fabric of Welsh

Massive rural emigration followed to English-speaking towns and factories


Geographer Keith Buchanan referred to decline of Welsh and other Celtic languages as a “liquidation” by ruling English to produce a loyal, obedient work force for mines and factories

Recently the Welsh language has been granted educational and media privileges by British governmentSocial morale of its speakers is brokenLargely aged speakers surviveThe day nears when inhabitants may not know what the names of towns, rivers, and mountains meanThe Welsh may not even be able to understand their family names


The ongoing achievement of independence by various linguistic minority groups could rescue some languages previously endangered —examples of Estonia and Latvia

Language and religion

Occasionally a language is linked to a particular religious faith heightening cultural identity

Example of ArabicSpread from a core area on the Arabian peninsula with the Islamic faith

Without the evangelical fervor of the Muslims, Arabic would not have diffused so widely


Other Semitic languages also correspond to particular religious groups

We can attribute the preservation and revival of Hebrew to the tenacity of the Jewish faith

Amharic speakers in Ethiopia are Coptics, or Eastern Christians


Link between speech and faith can be seen within very small areas

Example of Pakistan — studied by German geographer Hermann Kneutzmann

Studied 17 languages in isolated mountain valleys in northernmost part of country

Over 90 percent of speakers of 12 of the languages belonged to one of four local Muslim sects

Language a mountain person speaks usually helps determine religious denomination


Latin survived mainly as the ceremonial language of the Roman Catholic Church

In Iran, a non-Arabic Muslim land, Arabic is still used in religious ceremonies


Religious books can shape languages by providing a standard form

Luther’s translation of the Bible led to standardization of German languageThe Koran is the model for written ArabicEarly Welsh translation of a hymnal and the Bible helped the language surviveIn Fiji, the Bible published in one of the 15 local dialects elevated it to the dominant native language


Linkage of language and religion increase chance of nationalistic conflict

Greek/Christian - Turkish/Muslim problem in Cyprus

Armenian/Christian - Azeri/Muslim war

Battle against Nio-Saharan/Christian and animist tribal groups in Sudan

The Mosaic of Languages

Linguistic Culture Regions

Linguistic Diffusion

Linguistic Ecology

Culturo-Linguistic Integration

Linguistic Landscapes

Linguistic landscapes

1. Cultural landscape bears the imprint of language in various ways

Example-road signs, billboards, graffiti, etc.

Can be a visual index to bilingualism or linguistic oppression of minorities

2. Differences in alphabets render many foreign linguistic landscapes vividly alien

Samoan, a Polynesian language

Were?

Messages

Both friendly and hostile messages are sent by linguistic landscapesOften have political content—deal with power, domination, subjugation, or freedom (Figure 5.13)Example of Turkey

Kurdish or Arabic speakers are not allowed any visual display of their languagesLinguistic landscape displays only TurkishLinguistic minorities are visually reminded of their inferior position

Québec has tried to eliminate English-language signs

Toponyms

Place-namesOften directly reflect spatial patterns of language, dialect, and ethnicityBecome part of the cultural landscape when they appear on signs and placardsHighway signs such as Huntsville, Harrisburg, Ohio River, Newfound Gap, etc. often provide a visible index to distribution of other cultural traitsMany place-names consist of two parts — the generic and the specific

The specific part of the names listed above (#4) would be: Hunts, Harris, Ohio, Newfound, and HatterasThe generic parts, which tell what kind of place is being described are:vile, burg, river, gap

Wisconsin

Wisconsin

This is a French toponym meaning “grassland of the dog.”

The French explorers Marquette and Joliet, following natural routeways from Montreal, reached this prairie site at the

Wisconsin

confluence of the Mississipi and Wisconsin Rivers in 1673.

Alim, mean “dog” was the name of the local Indian chief.

“Prairie” is the generic and “du Chien” the

Wisconsin

specific part of this placename.

Developed as a fur trading cener, it indeed became a rendezvous or meeting place, a notion incorporated in the civic boosterism of modern times.

Toponyms

Generic toponyms are of greater value to cultural geographers than specific names

They appear again and again throughout a culture regionEvery culture or subculture has its own distinctive setCan be particularly valuable in tracing the spread of a cultureOften aid in reconstructing past culture regions

Generic toponyms of the United States

New Englanders, speakers of the Northern dialect, frequently used the term center in the name of the town or hamlet near the center of townshipOutlying settlements in New England frequently bear the prefix east, west, north, or south — the name of township being the suffixUsing these generic usages peculiar to New England we can locate colonies New Englanders founded as they migrated from their homelands

Westward through upstate New York, Ontario, and into the upper MidwestToponymic evidence can be found in Walworth County, Wisconsin

Generic toponyms of the United States

Other generic place names identified with the Northern dialect—brook, notch, and cornersThe trace of New England even reaches Seattle, Washington where “center” and “corner” are frequently usedMidland American areas can be identified by such terms as gap, cove, hollow, knob, and burghSouthern speech is recognized by names as bayou, gully, and store (for rural hamlets)

Toponyms and cultures of the past

Place-names may survive long after a culture has vanished, thereby preserving traces of the pastAustralia abounds in Aborigine toponyms—even in areas where the native peoples have long since disappearedToponyms identifying physical geographical features seem to last permanentlyStudy of archaic names has greater value in the Eastern Hemisphere

Australian Aborigine toponym


Example of eastern GermanySuffixes ow, in, and zig are common Slavic suffixes in village names

Suffix distribution accurately reveals the culture region peopled by Slavic tribes as late as A.D. 800

Slavic languages have disappeared from most of eastern Germany

Suffix weiler, in names of German villages south of the Danube and west of the Rhine, reminds us of former Roman rule and Latin usage


Example of Spain and Portugal

Moorish rule for 700 years left many Arabic place-names

Prefix of guada on river names is a corruption of the Arabic wadi


Example of New ZealandThe Maori, a native Polynesian people, are today confined mainly to refuge areasThe smaller the town the larger the percentage of Maori place-namesTwenty percent of provinces have Maori namesFifty-six percent of counties have Maori namesNearly all streams, hills, and mountains retain Maori namesImplication—British settlement remains largely an urban phenomenon

Linguistic landscapes can help shape the character of places

Toponyms and environmental modification

Generic place-names tell us about humankind’s past alteration of the environment

Germanic peoples cleared forests from England eastward into present-day Poland

Toponyms sometimes indicate how clearing was accomplished

Suffixes roth and reuth, as in Neuroth and Bayreuth, mean “rooted out” or “grubbed out”, and refer to the practice of digging out roots after cutting trees

Toponyms and environmental modification

In England, ley or leigh, as in Woodley, means “clearing” or “open place” in the forestIn European place-names, brind, brunn, and brand, reveal clearing by using fireIn eastern woodlands of the United States, American Indians cleared considerable forest areas before the coming of Columbus

Abandoned grass-covered fields survivedEuropeans recorded these places of deforestation by calling them prairie

Over 200 of these generic terms appear in wooded eastern Texas alone

Documents

Linguistic Ecology Today environmental isolation is no longer the linguistic force it once was Inhospitable lands and islands are reachable by airplanes