LANGUAGE

Key Questions  What are languages, and what role do languages play in culture?  Why are languages distributed the way they are?  How do languages diffuse?  What role does language play in making places?

What are languages and what role do languages play in culture?

Language and Culture  A language is a combination of sounds and symbols used to communicate.  Language gives people identity, on an individual and cultural level.

 A standard language is widely published, taught, and distributed.  It is decided by people with power and influence. Standardized Language

 Dialects are variants of a standard language.  Written language is often the same, but when spoken, there are verbal differences.  An isogloss is a boundary of a particular linguistic feature. Dialects

Human Geography book: Harvard Survey of North American Dialects Common Soft Drink Name

crayon a. [] as in "man" (1 syllable, "cran") (14.13%) b. [ej] (2 syllables, "cray-ahn") (48.64%) c. [ej] (2 syllables, "cray-awn", where the second syllable rhymes with "dawn") (34.53%) d. [aw] (I pronounce this the same as "crown") (1.46%) e. other (1.24%) (11514 respondents) Dialects

 Two people that can understand each other when speaking.  Some languages are mutually intelligible, but some dialects of the same language aren’t. Mutual Intelligibility

Why are languages distributed the way they are?

Language Formation  Linguistic geographers study sound shifts and categorize languages into families and subfamilies.  An example of a sound shift would be the Latin word for eight, oto, changed to otto, ocho, and huit.

Branches of Proto-Indo-European  images  africa language families.gif.webloc

Reconstructing the Vocabulary of Proto-Indo-European  Linguists used backwards reconstruction, or tracking sound shifts, to reconstruct this extinct language.  Through deep reconstruction, Russian scholars have found Proto-Indo-European’s ancestor, Nostratic language.  Learning the ancient languages reveals past cultural traits for speakers.

Locating the Hearth of Proto-Indo-European  Language divergence, or isolation, can lead to new dialects and languages.  Ex: Spanish and Portuguese  Language convergence brings languages together, merging into one.  Ex: Spanglish

Branches of Proto-Indo-European  images  africa language families.gif.webloc

Locating the Hearth

Colin Renfrew proposed that many ancient languages originated around the fertile crescent and diffused into Europe, Africa, and Asia. The Renfrew Hypothesis

Tracing the Diffusion of Proto-Indo-European  The conquest theory states that speakers of Proto-Indo-European spread on horseback, overpowering inhabitants, forcing them to speak Proto- Indo-European.

The Agriculture Theory  The agriculture theory states that language diffused though Europe alongside agriculture.

Dispersal Hypothesis  This claims that Indo-European languages were carried into southwest Asia, around the Caspian sea, and into the Balkans.

Languages of Europe  Romance Languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese.  Germanic Languages: English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish.  Slavic Languages: Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian.

European Languages

Languages of Subsaharan Africa

There are 400 different languages spoken in Nigeria by 100 million people. Languages of Nigeria

How do languages diffuse?

Lingua Franca  A language for trade used by speakers of different languages.  When parts of two languages are combined in speech, it is called a pidgin language.  When a pidgin language develops more and becomes the native language of a group of people, it becomes a Creole language.

Multilingualism  A monolingual state is a country in which only one language is spoken.  There are no completely monolingual states, but Japan, Iceland, and Denmark come close.  Countries in which more than one language is spoken are called multilingual states.

Official Languages  An official language ties people together in countries with linguistic fragmentation.  Chosen by government  There can be more than one

Global Languages  A global language is used around the world for trade and commerce.  English is the most widely used language for cross- cultural communication.

What role does language play in making places?

The name of a place. Toponyms

Ten Basic Toponym Types 1. Descriptive 2. Associative 3. Commemorative 4. Commendatory 5. Incidents 6. Possession 7. Folk 8. Manufactured 9. Mistakes 10. Shift names 1. Rocky Mountains 2. Mill Valley 3. San Francisco 4. Paradise Valley 5. Battle Creek 6. Johnson City 7. Plains, Georgia 8. Tesnus 9. Lasker 10. Lancaster (England to Pennsylvania)

Changing Toponyms  Changing toponyms gives places layers of history. AP Human Geography Book Alexander B. Murphey

Post-Colonial Toponyms  When countries gain independence, they change many names.

Postrevolution Toponyms  Democratic Republic of the Congo  Zaire changed many toponyms.

Memorial Toponyms  Honors a person or event.

Commodification of Toponyms

By, Jonathan Watson Shannon Maple Adrian Raygoza Richie Ruiz THE END