Language

a system of communication through speech using collections of sounds languages today worldwide Mandarin Chinese English

Dialect regional variation distinguished by vocabulary (lexicon or words), spelling, pronunciation, syntax (word order), cadence, pace of speech

American English Dialects

Dialects American apartment building French Fries potato chips Cigarette Elevator Restroom ground beef Diaper baby carriage line of people Backpack Wrench flashlight British block of flats Chips Crisps Fag Lift Loo Mince Nappy Pram Queue Rucksack Spanner torch

Standard Language a dialect well established and recognized as most acceptable for government, business, education and mass communication i.e.. British Received Pronunciation

Official Language one adopted by a country; already used by educated and politically powerful, will enhance communication and interaction among peoples of different traditional languages English is the official language in 42 countries The US has no official language South Africa has 11 Switzerland has 4

Lingua Franca Frankish language; a language of international communication; a common language spoken by peoples with different native tongues; example of language convergence early Mediterranean, Arabic, English, Swahili in East Africa

Pidgin a simplified and modified language arising from two groups speaking mutually unintelligible languages desiring trade One group is technologically superior form of language change

Creole results when a pidgin (simplified and modified language) is adopted by a community as its native tongue and the children begin to learn this as their native language The process is called creolization example of language replacement

Esperanto an artificial world language meant to become the first or second language of peoples everywhere; based on Latin and a combination of words from modern Indo- European languages; failed due to the fact that it was just another Indo-European language, not a global tongue

Ebonics from ebony and phonics; a distinct dialect of English spoken by African Americans; use of double negatives: she be at home, holler (hollow) and crick (creek), a-sitting

Spanglish refers to the widespread diffusion of English words into the Spanish language spoken by Hispanics in the US, involves converting English words to Spanish forms

Franglais refers to the widespread diffusion (invasion) of English words into the French traditional language Substitution of English for French as the most important language for international communication Rejection of this stems from national pride and identity and the need to protect their language

Isolated Language a language unrelated to any other and unattached to any language family arise through lack of interaction with speakers of other languages Basque: the only language spoken in Europe that survives from the period before the arrival of Indo-European speakers

Unchanging Language due to lack of contact with other speakers no new words and no changes Iceland: the language that has changed less than any other in the Germanic branch over 1000 years

Extinct Language once in use but no longer spoken Amazon region: 500 in 16 th century to 57 today Gothic Celtic: major language in British Isles before Germanic groups invaded At risk of becoming extinct Hebrew: has been revived One of Israel’s official languages Difficult to revive because use following Biblical times and 4,000 new words had to be created

Monolingual State countries in which only one language is spoken; Japan, Iceland, Portugal, Poland, Lesotho, Venezuela, Uruguay

Multilingual State countries in which more than one language is spoken; former colonial areas, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Peru, India, South Africa, Cyprus, Russia

Multilingual State: Belgium There has been much tension in Belgium between Flemings, who live in the north and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and Walloons, who live in the south and speak French.

Multilingual State: Nigeria More than 200 languages are spoken in Nigeria, the largest country in Africa (by population). English, considered neutral, is the official language.

Multilingual State: Switzerland Switzerland remains peaceful with four official languages and a decentralized government structure.

Language Family a collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed long before recorded history Indo-European 4000 years old 218 worldwide

The Language Tree

Language Branch (sub family) collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago 430 different languages Indo-European has eight branches (see page …) English is part of the Germanic branch

Language Group a collection of languages within a branch that share a common and relatively recent origin West Germanic English is part of the Low Germanic subgroup

Etymology the tracing of a word back to its source in earlier languages Main Entry: school Pronunciation: 'sk ü l Function: noun Etymology: Middle English scole, from Old English scOl, from Latin schola, from Greek scholE leisure, discussion, lecture, school; perhaps akin to Greek echein to hold

Cognates similar looking words in two languages that share the same or similar meaning Latin for milk is lacte Italian: latta Spanish: leche French: lait

Sound Shifts The use of cognates to trace words from one language to another Latin octo, Italian otto, Spanish ocho, French hiut German vater, Dutch vader, English father

Deep Language Reconstruction first deduce a large part of the vocabulary of an extinct language through sound shifts and then to go back and re-create the language that preceded it

Proto-Indo European ya, before the divergence of Indo European; identification of source areas and diffusion Multiple theories regarding source area Between present day Russia and Kazahkstan Eastern Anatolia

Nostratic 14,000 ya, predecessor to proto-Indo European Suspected homeland: Near East Links multiple language families together Uralic-Altaic Dravidian Afro-Asiatic

Mother Tongue 200,000 ya, the first language spoken by Homo Sapiens in Africa

Language Divergence differentiation over time and space; language tree model, as languages branch into dialects isolation increases the differences between dialects, dialects then become discrete languages; Quebecois French

Language Convergence diffusion sometimes causes once isolated languages to make contact due to migration

Language Replacement Creolization; languages become replaced or drastically modified by the languages of invaders

Toponomy The study of place names Descriptive: Rocky Mountains Associative: Mill Valley, California Incident: Battle Creek, Michigan