UNIT 3CHAPTER 5: LANGUAGE

Language: 1of the most obvious examples of culture

Estimated 7,299 languages spoken 10 spoken by 100M+ 100 spoken by 5M+

LANGUAGE

INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE

Language: system of communication through speech, a collection of symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning

Literary tradition: system of written communication

Offi cial language: the one used by the gov’t for laws, reports, and public objects; road signs, $, & stamps

LANGUAGE

Where different languages are used How these languages can be grouped in

spaceWhy languages have distinctive distributions

Language like luggage Look at similarities to understand diffusion and

interaction of people around the world

BIG 2

ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH ½ billion people speak it

Only Mandarin is spoken moreOffi cial language in 50 countries 1/3 of the world live in a country where

English is an offi cial language (might not speak it)

WHERE ARE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SPEAKERS DISTRIBUTED?

ENGLISH SPOKEN

ENGLISH COLONIES English speakers exist because of the spread

of EnglandSpread throughout the world

NA Ireland South Asia South Pacific Southern Africa

ORIGIN & DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH

ORIGIN OF ENGLISH IN ENGLAND Germanic language say

whatttttt?Celts (2000 B.C.)

Pushed north (Scotland/Wales)

ZEE GERMANS ARE COMING Angles, Jutes (Denmark),

and Saxons (German)Angles’ Land England Evolving through invasion

ORIGIN & DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH

NORMAN INVASION 1066Norman as in Normandy FranceFrench spoken for 300 years

Commoners continued English English/French which is it?

English official language of Parliament in 1489300 years of mingling

ORIGIN & DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH

Dialect: regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation

Several dialects in U.S. and other English speaking countries

Standard language: dialect that is well est. and widely recognized as the most acceptable for gov. business, edu, mass communication

Printing press spreads English

DIALECTS OF ENGLISH

Isolation Vocab: New discoveries, animals, and

inventions Forests, chipmunk, bonnet/hood, boot/trunk

Spelling Noah Webster

Pronunciations A and R difference Brit: /ah/ Am: /a/ ~fauhst/fast, pauth/path Brits don’t pronounce r’s except when it proceeds a vowel

BRIT/AM DIFFERENCES

American settlers; 13 colonies East: New England and Southeastern settlers

came from southern and southeastern England Mid Atlantic: Scots/Irish, German, Dutch,

Swedes Differences? isogloss: a boundary that separates

regions in which diff erent language usages predominate Bucket/pail, brook/creek/run, skillet/pan Car (cahr) heart (haht) lark (lahrk)

U.S. DIALECTS

Language family: collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history

Language branch: “ “ several thousand years ago

4 major branches: Indo-Iranian: South Asia Romance: Southwestern Europe & Latin America Germanic: Northwestern Europe & North America Balto-Slavic: Eastern Europe

4 minor branches: Albanian, Armenian, Greek, and Celtic

INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCHES

BRANCHES OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY

Figure 5-9

GERMANIC Language group: collection of languages

within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and have few diff erences in grammar and vocab. English/German High/Low Germanic: English-Low, German-High Scandinavian: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and

Icelandic

INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCHES

IRANIAN 100 languages spoken by 1 billion people

East (Indic) West (Iranian)Eastern: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

India’s language dispute (north/south) 18 official languages

Western: Iran and Southwestern Asia Persian: Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan Kurdish: (western Iran) Iraq and Turkey

INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCHES

INDO-IRANIAN

BALTO-SLAVIC East/Baltic: Russia, Ukrainian, and Belarusian

Russia’s dominance during cold warWest/South: Polish, Czech, and Slovak

Czech and Slovak very similar Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and

Serbia

INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCHES

ROMANCE BRANCH Evolved from Latin spoken by Romans 2,000

y.o. Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian Rugged mountains separate their language

Romansh and Catalán Romansh: 40,000 ppl in Switzerland Catalán: official lang. of Andorra, eastern Spain

(Barca)

INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCHES

ORIGIN & DIFFUSION OF ROMANCE LANGUAGESAll branch from Latin

At its height, stretched from Atlantic to Black Sea With conquering comes diffusion Each province adds its own flavor Vulgar Latin: used in daily convo’s opposed to standard dialect (offi cial docs)

Fall of Romans 5 thC Regional variations of Latin Revert back to old language

INDO-EUROPEAN BRANCHES

Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, & Indo-Iranian come from the same family: Proto-Indo-European (can’t be fully proven) Beech, oak, bear, deer, pheasant, and bee Winter and snow…not ocean

Accept that Proto-Indo-European existed But not when/where/diffused Possible Kurgans (4300 B.C.) Possible Anatolians (6300 B.C.)

Agriculture or war?

ORIGIN & DIFFUSION OF INDO-EUROPEAN

KURGAN MIGRATION

ANATOLIAN MIGRATION

Language in Indo-European (Eng) spoken by 48% of the world

Language in Sino-Tibetan (Mandarin) spoken by 26%

Language in Afro-Asiatic (Arabic) spoken by 6%Language in Austronesian (SE Asia) spoken by 5%Language in Dravidian (India) spoken by 4%Language in Altaic (Africa) spoken by 3%Language in Niger-Congo (Africa) spoken by 3%Japanese (separate family) spoken by 2%Remaining 3% belong to one of 100 smaller

families

CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES

LANGUAGE FAMILIES

SINO-TIBETAN ¼ of world speakers

China and SE AsiaSINITIC BRANCH

No single Chinese language (Mandarin and Cantonese)

Words spelled the same, pronounced differently 420 1-syllable words: Shi: lion, corpse, house, poetry,

ten, swear, or die. Listener must infer meanings Thousands of characters Ideograms: represent concepts or ideas, not specific pronunciations

DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGE FAMILIES

Arabic and Hebrew, others in N Africa and SE Asia

Spread of language because of the Bible and Quran

Arabic spread from Morocco to Arabian Peninsula

AFRO-ASIATIC LANGUAGE FAMILY

1,000+ languages, several thousand dialects doc.

Niger-Congo: 95% of sub-Saharans speak it Largest branch: Benue-

Congo Swahili: secondary language

of 30M AfricansNilo-Saharan: North

Central Khosian: South WestAustronesian: Indonesia

Javanese and Malay

AFRICAN LANGUAGE FAMILIES

Extinct language: language no longer spoken or read 516 nearly extinct: 46 African, 170 Americas, 78

Asian, 12 European and 210 Pacific Religious influences: Goths and Peru

Reviving Hebrew Biblical language Jewish celebrations Israel establishes as one of 2 official languages

(Arabic) Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

PRESERVING LANGUAGE DIVERSITY

Celtic originated in Germany, France, and N Italy

Celtic Groups: Goidelic (Gaelic) and BrythonicIrish Gaelic (7%) and Scottish Gaelic (1%)Brythonic (Cymric or Britannic)

Wales: 1/6 still speak Welsh. Lost dominance in 19th C All gov’t & utility companies must provide services

in Welsh, BBC broadcasts in Welsh Cornwall: Cornish extinct in 1777 Brittany Pen.: ½ Mil speak Breton, French infusion

CELTIC: PRESERVING ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

Belgium: split into Flemings (North/Flanders) and Walloons (South/Wallonia) Flanders speak Flemish (close to

Dutch) Wallonia speak French

Each region controls cultural aff airs, public health, road construction, and urban development Brussels is truly bilingual

Switzerland: peacefully exists w/ multiple languages Decentralized gov’t is the key Most power is with local

authorities

MULTILINGUAL STATES

SWITZERLAND

Isolated language: language unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family

Arise from lack of interaction w/ speakers of other languages

Basque: Before arrival of Indo-European speakers Spoken by 600,000 people in Pyrenees Mts in N Spain

& S France Isolation

Icelandic: North Germanic group Changed less than any other Germanic lang. in the

past 1,000 years ISOLATION

ISOLATED LANGUAGE

Lingua Franca: a language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by ppl who have dif. Native tongues

Pidgin language: form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocab of a lingua franca, use for comm. among speakers of 2 dif. Lang no native speakers, spoken for trade purposes

Swahili, Hindustani, Indonesian, and Russian (others)

Knowing Eng. is the most effective way to work in a global econ.

ENGLISH: LINGUA FRANCA

Distribution mainly from migration and conquestRecently through expansion diffusion

Spread of an idea rather than through relocation Expansion 2 ways: 1) new vocab, spelling, and

pronunciation 2) fusing words w/ other languages Ebonics: combination of ebony and phonics

Preserved in African American communities Language that slave masters could not understand

Appalachian dialect: hollowholler, creekcrick Regional identity and poor education

DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH

Franglais: combination of français and anglais French aren’t happy about English gaining

dominance Spanglish: combination of Spanish and

English Cubonics in Cuban-American communities More integration of English with Spanish than just

borrowing English words Parquin, taipear bipiar, and i-meiliar

Denglish: German and English

DIFFUSION OF OTHER LANGUAGES

ENGLISH/FRENCH BOUNDARIES