1

Chapter 5

Language

PPT by Abe Goldman

An Introduction to Human GeographyThe Cultural Landscape, 8e

James M. Rubenstein

2

French Road Signs,

Québec

3

English Speaking Countries

Fig. 5-1: English is the official language in 42 countries, including some in which it is not the most widely spoken language. It’s also used & understood in many others.

4

1. Language: System of communication thru speechLiterary Tradition: syst. of written communication (documents,

novels, etc.)Official Language: lang. used for a country’s gov’t for laws,

reports, etc.2. The 3 traits that best distinguish cultural values: a. LANGUAGE b. RELIGION C.

ETHNICITY

K–1 Engl.: Origin, Diffusion, & Dialects; Where are Eng. Lang. speakers?

3. English: spoken by 1/2 billion in 42 countries --1/3 of the world uses English as its official lang. -More speakers than any except Mandarin in China4. Why English diffused: 1st = Brit. Empire took to colonies -now the official lang. in most of the former British colonies5. Explain why we speak Engl. now: Brit. In N. Amer.

became dominant power when they defeated the French (migration yrs: 1607 – 1840)

5

6. How the USA diffused Engl.: Thru… *wars (WWI, WWII, etc.) *US is economic power (trade) *globalization of communication systems (TV, music,

internets, satellites, etc.)7. Engl. is classified as Germanic lang. How did this replaced languages in the British Isles.

Include terms: Angles, Jutes, Saxons, & Vikings: --450 CE: Angles (S. Denmark), Jutes (N. Denmark), &

Saxons (NW Germany) ; about 800 CE Vikings invade--& some stay

8. Explain the Norman (& when??) influence on English: 1066 Normans invade Brit.; Normans ruled and French (Latin-based) = official lang.

1. Simpler terms: sky, horse, man, woman more complex terms: celestial, equine, masculine,

feminine

6

Invasions of England 5th–11th centuries

Fig. 5-2: Groups that brought what became English to England included Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Vikings. The Normans later brought French vocabulary to English.

7

10. Dialect: Regional lang. variation; distinctive in vocab., spelling, & pronunciation

Standard lang.: well established, acceptable dialect used in schools, govt., etc.

EX: Upper class Brit. (BRP: Brit. Received Pronunc)

11. Basics of different older Engl. dialects: Kentish (SE) Jutes; W. Saxon (SW): Saxons; Mercian (Central): Saxons

12. Why SE (in Engl.) dialect = "proper" standard Engl.? B/C there = London, upper-class, gov’t., $$, plus

Oxford & Cambridge Univ.’s

13. 3 Engl. dialects now: Northern, Midland, Southern

14. Why Engl. = USA’s standard lang.: Brits settled Atlantic Coast in 1600’s & were main immigr. thru 1840

8

Old & Middle English Dialects

Fig. 5-3: The main dialect regions of Old English before the Norman invasion persisted to some extent in the Middle English dialects thru the 1400’s.

9

15. Why US Engl. changed fr. Brit Engl: isolation (Atlantic distance)

16. 3 main differ.’s of ways US & Brit Engl.: vocab., pronunciation, & spelling

Main reason differed right off: Distance, new terms & items in landscape, mix of

people

17. How these affected the new US Engl.: a) Native Americans: new words: moose, raccoon,

chipmunk, hurricane, canoe, squash b) inventions: new common names: torch/flashlight;

lift/elevator; lorry/transfer truck or semi c) Noah Webster: chose “Amer.” way…didn’t know

some…also later T. Roosevelt “simplified” some like “colour”, etc.

18. Why US/Brit varied from start: Distance meant only letters, documents, etc.; other migrants in US

10

19. 2 reasons US Eng. more like 18th cent. English than Brit Eng. is?

A) Standard SE Engl. not set till almost 1800; already changing

B) few colonists = upper-class, so didn’t speak standard

20. Why is big differ. (distinctions) in New Engl. accents & Southern accents now: more distance between N-E & S. (D- D-?); came from differ. parts of Engl. & fr. Scotland & Ireland & Wales

21. Why Mid-Atlant. dialects v. differ. Fr. the Southern & New .Eng.: NE = Puritans (mid-class SE engl.); Mid-Atlan. = Scots; South. = lower class SE Eng.

22. Some differences thru US, main dialect differ. seen on East Coast (but Great Lakes: Scand.)

11

Dialects in the Eastern U.S.

Fig. 5-4: Hans Kurath divided the eastern U.S. into three dialect regions, whose distribution is similar to that of house types (Fig. 4-9).

12

23. Isogloss: word usage boundary: area where a word is used Usually what areas? More rural

EX: pail (NE); bucket (South & Mid-Atl.); brook (NE), run (Mid-At.), branch (S)

24. EX: dialectal pronunciations: S: ha-af (half); mi-yen (mine); New Eng.: “hot” (heart); “lock” (lark)

25. Thru West, US standard Eng. comes mainly from… Mid-Atlan. areas

Why? Most western settlers from there

26. How western mov't. affected spread of dialects: Mid-W & S. of Ohio: VA + Southern N. of Ohio River: Mid-Atlantic; Some New-Engl: Great Lakes

13

KEY - 2 (P. 144): Indo-European Language Family Why Engl. is“related” to other lang’s: (FBG)

27. language family: collection of lang.’s related thru common ancestor long b4 recorded history

EX: English in which? Indo-European (world’s most extensive)

--language branch: collection of lang.s w/ common ancestor several 1000’s yrs. ago

EX: Romance (?) Indo-Iranian Germanic Balto-Slavic

--language group: shared origin, relatively recent past; similar grammar & vocab. (fat boys go!!!)

EX: W. Germanic (hi & lo) = Engl., Dutch, Flemish

28. Language family spoken by more than any other: Indo-EuropeanHow many people use? Over 3 billion (1st lang. for 2.5

bill.) has over 100 lang.’s

14

29. Indo-Eur. is broken into 8 branches-4 spoken by lots of ppl & where these are found:

Indo-Iranian (S. Asia), Romance (SW Euro. & Lat. Amer.), Germanic (NW Eur. & N. AMer.), Balto-Slavic (E. Eur.)

30. “High” & “low” subgroups & why “hi/lo”: b/c of mtns. & lowlands (elevations)

Hi-Germanic: standard German Lo Germanic: Dutch, Engl., Flemish…etc.

31. How is English “classified”?Indo-European Germanic W. Low Germanic

32. N. Germ. lang.’s spoken in Scandinavia -the 4: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic -all came from Old Norse (Vikings), spoken in

Scandinavia prior to 1000 CE

15

Indo-European Language Family

Fig. 5-5: The main branches of the Indo-European language family include Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian.

16

Germanic Branch of Indo-European

Germanicbranch today is divided into N. & W.Germanic groups. English is in the West Germ. grp.

17

33. Indo-Iranian: Of all Indo-Eur., has the most speakers: over 1 billion in more than 100 lang.’s

Eastern grp = Indic Western grp. = Iranian

34. Indic Grp.:

India: main lang. = Hindi written w/ script called Devanagari

Spoken versions v. different, but written is the same for all b/c only until recently few Hindi speakers could read & write

Pakistan: main lang: Urdu

-Spoken much like Hindi, but written in Arabic b/c most Paki’s are Muslims & lang. of Qu’ran is Arabic

-Both of these based on = Hindustani

18

South Asian Languages & Language Families

Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia. The country of India has 18 official languages.

19

35. India’s lang. v. diverse: almost 1 billion ppl & using lang.’s from 4 different lang. families:

1.Indo-European 2. Dravidian 3. Sino-Tibetan 4. Austro-Asiatic 36. Why India has 18 different “official” lang.’s:m So

many grps., objected to having just 1 (Dravidan closest to #1 )

Main lang. of Bangladesh: Bengali37. % of Indians speaking Engl.: 1 % Why sometimes used as a “common” lang.: So many

lang., need a main one; also Brit. econ. Influence 38. Iranian Group: Uses Arabic alphabet; Main lang.’s: a) Persian (aka “Farsi”) in Iran b) Pathan (E. Afghan. & W. Pakistan) c) Kurdish used by the Kurds, located on borders

of W- Iran, N-Iraq, & E-Turkey

20

39. Balto-Slavic: Once all one lang.,…now 4 main groups:

East West South plus a Baltic group40. Main ones = Eastern groups, especially

Russian spoken by 80% of Russians & is 1 of the 6 official langs. of the U.N (United Nations)

41. Russian gain importance in new areas after 1945 b/c they gained power after WWII….& forced Eastern European countries to learn & use Russian

Is still important in there b/c still used by leaders of former USSR countries for communicating w/ each other & for economic cooperation

42. In order of importance In this region: 1. Russian 2. Ukrainian 3. Belorussian43. W/S Slavic: 3 W. Slavic langs., in order of most

spoken = 1) Polish 2) Czech 3) Slovak

21

44. In order to “balance” using their 2 official lang. in the old Czechoslovakia, what did TV announcers do?

1st ½ of of show used 1 lang., then 2nd ½ switched to the other

45. 2 most important S. Slavic lang.’s: Serbo-Croatian Bulgarian46. Most differ.’s betwn. these Slavic lang. are SMALL

EX: they can understand each other 47. Regional differ.’s seen in lang. since Bosnia &

Croatia broke from Yugoslavia in ‘90’s: -MUSLIMS in Bosnia brought in Arabic words; -CROATS got rid of Serbian words & took new ones

These lang.’s in the future: Might become more & more different from each other b/c of hostilities betwn. Ethnic

48. Romance lang.’s, like other lang.’s, didn’t just appear but evolved… Romance from Latin

22

49. France: 3 main dialects: --standard FR. = _Francien (aka Parisienne) --the dialect of the South lang d’oc (from “Aquataine”) --the Northern is langue d’oil50.Spanish: Standard SP: Castillian (are few rural dialects)51. About 90% of speakers of SP & Port. live outside of

Spain & Portugal b/c of colonialism (aka imperialism) a) SP is the official lang. of 18 Latin Amer. countries? b) Brazil’s main lang.: Portuguese & they have 15 times

as many speakers of Portuguese than Portugal does52. Brazil speaks Portuguese b/c of the Treaty of

Tordesillas (1494); Pope ended argument over who controlled what in Sp. New World…West S. Amer. = Spain,

East = Portugal53. 2 EX: of how Old & New Worlds continue to

blend/evolve languages? a) Books & TV have big influence

b) Brazil & Portg. standardized Portuguese, & Port. lost some of the ways Portg. Spoke & the Brazilians’ lang. won out

23

Romance Branch of Indo-European

The Romance branch includes three of the world’s 12 most widely spoken languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese), as well as a number of smaller languages and dialects.

24

54-a. “Creole” or “creolized language”: Indigenous ppl’s lang. + colonists’ lang.

3 EX’s: Fr. Creole (Haiti); Papiemento (Creolized Span.); Netherlands Antilles (W. Indies); Portg. Creole (Cape Verde Islands…off W. Africa coast)

54-b. “Proto-Indo-European: theory that was once 1 single lang. for all ppl.

-Can’t prove it existed b/c was pre-historic -Some still think it DID exist b/c of commonalities in lang.’s

& lang. families-Words winter, snow, & ocean possible parts of puzzle b/c

are no similar word for “ocean”…so probably all came from place w/o ocean

55. Debate RE: A & K: Kurgans: betwn. Russia & Kazakhstan; about 4300 BCE; militaristic, nomadic

warriors Anatolians: around Turkey; about 6300 BCE; agricultural

society --these 2 are theories about how Indo-European spread

from Asia thru Europe

25

Kurgan Theory of Indo-European Origin

Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan hearth N. of the Caspian Sea, about 7,000 yrs ago. (hunter/gatherers)

26

Anatolian Hearth Theory of Indo-European Origin

Fig. 5-10: In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion.

27

Language Families of the World

Fig. 5-11: Distribution of the world’s main language families. Languages with more than 100 million speakers are named.

28

K-3: Where are other lang. Families distributed?56: Lang. families where found % of the wld’s spkersIndo-Europ. All over except Afri./Arabia 50%Sino-Tibetan China & near China 20 % Afro-Asiatic Mid-East & N. Afr. 5%Austronesian SE Asia 5%Niger-Congo Africa 5%Dravidian India 5%57. Trace back the following languages: (1st is done as EX)

Language branches/roots where it’s mostly spoken

a) Hindi Indic--Indo-Iranian--Indo-European--Nostratic? India

b) Mandarin Sinitic—Sino-Tibetan—Sino-Caucasian Chinac) Engl. W.Germanic—Germanic—In-Europ.—nostratic

US/UKd) Tagalog Austronesian—Austric Philippinese) Hebrew-Arabic Semitic—Austro-Asiatic—Nostratic

Israel Arab. Penin.

f) Swahili Benue—Congo---Niger-Congo E. Africa

29

Major Language Families % of World Popula.

The % of world population speaking each of the main language families. Indo-European & Sino-Tibetan together represent almost 75% of the

world’s people.

30

31

58. Sino-Tibetan spoken in China

a) Sinitic branch: 1,302, 000 spkers. Largest: Mandarin

(2nd largest = Cantonese)

Chin. Uses Ideograms: symbol that = an idea

EX: Slide 31 + 33

b) Austro-Thai: Lrgest.: Thai

Spoken in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam

59. Chi/Jap/Kor.: Why 3 are v. different…some similarities:

Jap.: isolated b/c are islands; Jap. uses ideograms--borrowed Chi. writing

Kor.: isolated b/c is a peninsula; Kor. s phonetic like West

- Kor. & Jap. probably Altaic (central Asia)

-A major Austro-Asiatic lang.: Vietnamese; Alphabet devised by Rom. Catholic missionaries--was a Fr. colony

32

Chinese Ideograms

Chinese language ideograms mostly represent concepts rather than sounds (is not phonetic). The 2 basic characters at the top can be built into more complex words.

33

JapaneseWriting: Ideograms

Writing formborrowed from Chinese…but lang.is probably Altaic like Korean(from where?)

34

Korean Writing: phonetic, like Western lang.’s; does NOT use ideograms

35

60. Afro-Asiatic (aka Semitic-Hamitic): Though small, why is this branch so important??

Used for Holy Texts of 3 MAJOR WORLD RELIGIONS: Judaism, Christianity, & Islam

61. Six (6) official languages of the UN:a) Mandarin b) English c) Russiand) Spanish e) French f) Arabic

62. Altaic: a) Turkey changed from Arabic in ’28 b/c felt would

help modernized econ. & culture b) Other countries w/ Altaic lang.’s: Mongolia,

Kazakhstan, China c) Most Altaic lang. spkers. Religion: Islam d) Russia forced them to use another alphabet, Cyrillic

36

63. Uralic: 3 Uralic countries: Estonia, Finland, Hungary

Are NOT part of Indo-European family

64. # of distinct African lang.’s: about 1,000

So many b/c of limited contact, travel, & interaction of numerous culture groups

65. What is the MAIN N. African lang.: Arabic

66. Swahili has so much Arabic influence b/c came from interaction among African groups & Arab traders

67. What is a big problem in classifying African Languages? oral tradition of lang. (many not written) & only 10 are spoken by large #’s

68. What is Hottentot & where did it get its name?

The lang. sounded like “hottentot” to Europeans b/c of pops & clicks

37

Language Families of Africa1,000 or more lang.’sof Africa divided among 5 main lang.families, including Austronesian lang.’s in Madagascar.

38

Languages of Nigeria

More than 200 lang.’s are spoken in Nigeria, the largest country in Africa (by pop.). English, considered neutral, is the official language.

39

K- 4: Diversity & Uniformity:

Why people preserve languages:69. Most spoken Austronesian language:

Malay-Indonesian, Indonesia’s most important lang. (world’s 4th most populous country)

70. Nigeria’s Lang. problems: -200 lang.’s in small areas

-regional jealousies & tensions;

-lots of cultural diversity = lang. diversity…

-which often = conflict

71. What are “extinct” languages?

Lang.’s once spoken, no longer used in daily coversation; may still be read or studied

(EX’s: Latin, Cornish, Gothic)

40

Revived languages: What was done to revive the following languages? By Whom? Why? How?72. Hebrew: What? Ancient lang. of the Jews -Whom? Jews…especially by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda -Why? Establishment of Israel encouraged them

to bring it back into daily use…b4 was used for religious services only (pride in new country)

-How? Had to “invent” new terms for recent innovations b/c Hebrew had none of these

73: Gaelic: : What? Lang. of Ireland & Scotland before the Brits

-Why? Pride in new country: Revived & used daily when the Republic of Ireland was formed in the early 1900’s…

-How? taught in schools, used as road signs, = official language

41

1858 – 1922: Ben Yehuda “Israel must be reborn on its

ancestral land……” A Zionist leader …tying the

national restoration of the Jewish people to that of its language. He and his wife settled in Palestine where they mutually agree to no

longer speak to each other except in Hebrew….then he accepted a

position offered to him at the Alliance Israelite Universelle on

condition that he teaches in Hebrew. …compiled the first,

modern, Hebrew dictionary.” (in late 1800’s…country of Israel

“born” in 1947)

42

74: Multilingual states: Why the following are multilingual states…What languages & people… (slides )

-Belgium: Flemish, a Germanic lang. (N. area = Flanders)

…& French (S. areas = Walloons) -Switzerland: In order…German, French, Italian,

Romansh

75. “Isolated” lang.’s? Lang. not related to other lang.

2 isolated lang.’ s: Basque & Icelandic

76: Basque: Where? N. Spain, SW France, in N. Pyrenees

What? Lang. there b4 Indo-Euro.…not sure from whereWho? Separate culture, fighting for “full independence”

From where? Not sure…

77. Icelandic: Where? Iceland What? From Old Norse Who? Viking From where? Scandinavia (Denmark)

43

Basque culture in the Pyrenees Mtns. area, mostly in NE Spain, but bit over into SW France.

44

Language Divisions in Belgium

Are tensionsin Belgium between Flemings, in the north whoSpeakFlemish, a Dutch dialect, & Walloons in the south…& speak French

45

Language Areas in Switzerland

Switzerland remains peaceful w/4 official languages & a decentralized government structure.

46

78. What is a lingua franca? Lang. used for international communication, espec. for

trade…Was once Latin…then w/ Brit. Empire lingua franca became English…USA continued to encourage this use

79. What is the main lingua franca in the world today? Engl.

80. How Engl. continues to grow thru expansion diffusion:

Expansion diffusion: -spread of a trait thru a snowballing effect rather than relocation of any people

Ways: 1) new words, new spellings, & new pronunciations 2) fusion (joining) of Engl. into other languagesEX: Words from Latino-Amer. (Tex-Mex, various foods,

etc.), Appalachia (“holler”, “a-sittin’ ” etc.), Afr.-Amer. (jazz, gumbo, etc.

There was a push for Ebonics (Black English); now is seen as a true dialect…not separate lang.

47

81: Franglais: Mix of French & English; Fr. resist this & had “lang. police” w/ actual

laws to keep it out til 1994)82. Spanglish? Used by Latino folk; they

mix Sp. w/ Engl., using Sp. spellings but very similar English pronunciation (shorts = chores; vacuum cleaner: bacuncliner)

ADD:

83. Pidgin: A small mix of words from a lingua franca + another lang. in order to have basic communication w/ ppl in another culture group

48

84. a. French in N. Amer.: French Canadians are surrounded by Engl. Speakers in…Quebec, N. of NY, VT., etc.

b. What’s Quebecois? The Fr-Can. folks; surrounded by the Engl.

c. How is that affecting these people? Some resist & resent English …causes tensions

d. What do some there want? To secede & create separate country…not majority

NOTE: This is ethnicity affecting changes…On following slide, what effect can you often see

RE: the location of the speakers of the 2 languages?

49

French-English Boundary in CanadaThough Canada is bilingual, French speakers are concentrated in the Québec, where 80% of the ppl.speak French.

50

Internet: Encourages further globalization of English

Fig. 5-1-1: A large proportion of the world’s internet users and hosts are in the developed countries of North America & western Europe.

51

Internet Hosts by Language

The large majority of internet hosts in 1999 used English, Chinese, Japanese, or European languages.