WORLD GEOGRAPHY

Oct. 24, 2014

Today

Unit 5 – Language (continued)

Unit 5 - Language

- Languages and the role they play in culture

- Language distribution

- Diffusion of language

- Language and places

Language and culture

- Language contains much of cultural identity:

“Visibility”

Place of origin

Names of people, places, and things

Arts (e.g. music, literature)

PERCEPTION (to a degree, at least)

Language and culture

Example: Place names in the U.S. vs. China

U.S. - often indicative of the ethnic groups that originally settled in the area

e.g. San Francisco (Spanish) Williamsburg (German)

China (Mandarin) – Often determined by geographic location

What constitutes a language?

- Mutual intelligibility

- Standardized languages

- Dialects

Mutual Intelligibility

Criterion for a language: Speakers can understand each other

Problems

- Measuring “mutual intelligibility”

- Standard languages and government impact on what is a “language” and what is a “dialect”

Mutual Intelligibility

Criterion for a language: Speakers can understand each other

Problems

- Measuring “mutual intelligibility”

e.g. Mandarin Chinese vs. Cantonese Chinese vs. Standard written Chinese

- more than 8 dialects of Chinese

Mutual Intelligibility

Criterion for a language: Speakers can understand each other

Problems

- Standard languages and government impact on what is a “language” and what is a “dialect”

DialectVariant of standard language by ethnicity or region:

- Vocabulary- Syntax- Cadence, pace- Pronunciation

Scottish dialect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5XyecKONu8

BRP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIv0_LVT6JQ&list=PL6F15F2789687007F

Dialect

Creates the question of what the “true” language is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXGuCaApR7U

Dialect

Isogloss: A geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs

Dialect

Dialect

Dialect

Dialect

Dialect

Standardized language

“One that is published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught.” (p. 172)

e.g. Beijing Mandarin

BRP (British Received Pronunciation)

Parisian French

Korean spoken in Seoul

- Essentially, decided through power

Language distribution- Language formation

- Historical languages (Proto-Indo European)

Languages of Europe and Africa (next class)

Language distribution

Language formationLinkages among languages marked by sound shifts, slight changes in a word across languages over time

“Milk” = lacte in Latin leche in Spanish lait in French latta in Italian

“I’m hungry” = J'ai faim (French) Ho fame (Italian) Tengo hambre (Spanish)

http://ielanguages.com/romance_phrases.html

Language formation

Language divergence: Breakup of a language into dialects and then new languages from lack of interaction among speakers

e.g. Latin Romance languages

- French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian

Language formation

Language convergence: When peoples with different languages have consistent interaction and their languages blend into one

e.g. Old English + Norman French

= Middle English

(which eventually developed into modern English)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYsD4DPg4ls

Study of historical languages

Backward reconstruction: Tracking sound shifts and the hardening of consonants backward to reveal an “original” language

• Can deduce the vocabulary of an extinct language• Can recreate ancient languages (deep reconstruction)

Proto-Indo European: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_vocabulary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jlcV7DYL3o#t=532

Historical linkages among languages

• Indo-European language family

• Proto-Indo-European language

• Nostratic Language (ancient ancestor of Proto-Indo-European Language)

Origins of Proto-Indo European

Renfrew Hypothesis: Began in the Fertile Crescent, and then:

- Europe’s languages from Anatolia

- North Africa and Arabia’s languages from the Western Arc of Fertile Crescent

- Southwest Asia and South Asia’s languages from the Eastern Arc of Fertile Crescent

Agriculture Theory

With increased food supply and population, migration of speakers from the hearth of

Indo-European languages into Europe

Dispersal Hypothesis• From the hearth eastward into present-day Iran

• Around the Caspian• Into Europe

Proto-Indo European translator

http://indo-european.info/dictionary-translator/