Chapter 5: Language

Chapter 5 Language PPT by Abe Goldman An Introduction to Human Geography The Cultural Landscape, 8e James M. Rubenstein

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.

1. Language : System of communication thru speech Literary 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 China 4. Why English diffused: 1 st = Brit. Empire took to colonies -now the official lang. in most of the former British colonies 5. Explain why we speak Engl. now: Brit. In N. Amer. became dominant power when they defeated the French (migration yrs: 1607 – 1840)‏

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. I nclude 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. Simpler terms: sky, horse, man, woman more complex terms: celestial, equine, masculine, feminine

Invasions of England 5 th –11 th 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.

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

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.

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

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.)‏

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).

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

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-European How many people use? Over 3 billion (1 st lang. for 2.5 bill.) has over 100 lang.’s

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

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

Germanic Branch of Indo-European Germanic branch today is divided into N. & W. Germanic groups. English is in the West Germ. grp.

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

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.

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: Bengali 37. % 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

39. Balto-Slavic: Once all one lang.,…now 4 main groups: East West South plus a Baltic group 40. 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. Belorussian 43. W/S Slavic: 3 W. Slavic langs., in order of most spoken = 1) Polish 2) Czech 3) Slovak

44. In order to “balance” using their 2 official lang . in the old Czechoslovakia , what did TV announcers do? 1 st ½ of of show used 1 lang., then 2 nd ½ switched to the other 45. 2 most important S. Slavic lang.’s: Serbo-Croatian Bulgarian 46. 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… Roman ce from Latin

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’oil 50. 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 does 52. 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 = Portugal 53. 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

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.

54-a. “ Creole ” or “creolized language”: Indigenous ppl’s lang. + colonists’ lang. 3 EX’s: Fr. Creole (Haiti); Papiement o (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

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)‏

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.

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.

K-3: Where are other lang. Families distributed? 56: Lang. families where found % of the wld’s spkers Indo-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 China c) Engl. W.Germanic—Germanic—In-Europ.—nostratic US/UK d) Tagalog Austronesian—Austric Philippines e) Hebrew-Arabic Semitic—Austro-Asiatic—Nostratic Israel Arab. Penin. f) Swahili Benue—Congo---Niger-Congo E. Africa

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.

58. Sino-Tibetan spoken in China a) Sinitic branch: 1,302, 000 spkers. Largest: Mandarin (2 nd 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

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.

Japanese Writing: Ideograms Writing form borrowed from Chinese… but lang. is probably Altaic like Korean (from where?)‏

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

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) Russian d) 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

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

Language Families of Africa 1,000 or more lang.’s of Africa divided among 5 main lang. families, including Austronesian lang.’s in Madagascar.

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 .

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)

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

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)‏

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 where Who? Separate culture, fighting for “full independence” From where ? Not sure… 77. Icelandic : Where? Iceland What? From Old Norse Who? Viking From where? Scandinavia (Denmark)‏

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

Language Divisions in Belgium Are tensions in Belgium between Flemings , in the north who Speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, & Walloons in the south…& speak French

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

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 languages EX: 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.

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

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?

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

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.

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

Chapter 5: Language

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Chapter 5: Language