The Mosaic of Languages Cultural Geography

Why geographers study language Provides the single most common variable by which cultural groups are identified Provides the main means by which learned customs and skills pass from one generation to the next Reflects all aspects of culture – the physical area occupied by the society Facilitates cultural diffusion of innovations Because languages vary spatially, they reinforce the sense of region and place Study of language is called linguistic geography and geolinguistics by geographers

Language and Identity Establishes a cultural identity Builds group identity and a sense of unity Also nationalism Can divide people as well Canada – both English and French are official languages

Language Diffusion May follow trade routes Swahili developed as a trade language between Arabic traders and Bantu- speaking tribes on Africa’s east coast May diffuse through migration Colonists from Europe brought the English, Spanish, French and Dutch languages to North and South America, Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia Blended languages can help aid communication among groups speaking several languages Louisiana – French, African, and North American peoples blended to create Louisiana Creole

Language Families Over 6,000 languages Language — tongues that cannot be mutually understood Characterized by placing them with similar languages Evolved from earlier languages Dialect A speaker of English can understand the various dialect of the language A dialect is distinctive enough in vocabulary and pronunciation to label its speaker Reflects changes in speech patterns related to class, region, or other cultural changes. Southern drawl, Boston Accent, street slang

Language Families The Indo-European language family Largest most wide-spread family Spoken on all continents Dominant in Europe, Russia, North and South America, Australia, and parts of southwestern Asia and India Subfamilies—Romance, Slavic, Germanic, Indic, Celtic, and Iranic Subfamilies are divided into individual languages Seven Indo-European tongues are among the top 10 languages spoken in the world By comparing vocabularies in various languages one can see the kinship

Language Families Has two major divisions—Semitic and Hamitic The Afro-Asiatic family Has two major divisions—Semitic and Hamitic Semitic covers the area from Tigris-Euphrates valley westward through most of the north half of Africa to the Atlantic coast Domain is large but consists of mostly sparsely populated deserts Arabic is the most widespread Semitic language Arabic has the most number of native speakers— about 186 million Hebrew was a “dead” language used only in religious ceremonies Today Hebrew is the official language of Israel Smaller number of people speak Hamitic languages Originated in Asia but today only spoken in Africa Expansion of Arabic decreased the area and number of speakers

Other major language families Japanese/Korean language family Another major Asian family with nearly 200 million speakers Austro-Asiatic language family Found in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and spoken by some tribal people of Malaya and parts of India

English dialects in the United States Dialects reveal a vivid geography American English is hardly uniform from region to region At least three major dialects, corresponding to major culture regions, developed in the eastern United States by the time of the American Revolution Northern Midland Southern

English dialects in the United States The three subcultures expanded westward and their dialects spread and fragmented Retained much of their basic character even beyond the Mississippi River Have distinctive vocabularies and pronunciations Drawing dialect boundaries is often tricky Today, many regional words are becoming old-fashioned, but new words display regional variations The following words are all used to describe a controlled-access divided highway Freeway — a California word Turnpike and parkway — mainly northeastern and Midwestern words Thruway, expressway, and interstate

English dialects in the United States Many African-Americans speak their own form of English — Black English Once dismissed as inferior substandard English Developed on early slave plantations Today, spoken by about 80 percent of African-Americans Many features separate it from standard speech, for example: Lack of pronoun differentiation between genders Use of undifferentiated pronouns

English dialects in the United States American dialects suggest we are not becoming a more national culture by overwhelming regional cultures Linguistic divergence is still under way Dialects continue to mutate on a regional level Local variations in grammar and pronunciation proliferate The homogenizing influence of radio, television, and other mass media is being defied

London, England While English is spoken in many pats of the world, all English words are not mutually intelligible. This London tube (subway) sign say that anyone performing there (eg singing or playing for money) is subject to a fine of subsection. Are tubs, subway, and busking dialect words?

The environment and vocabulary Vocabularies develop for features of the environment that involve livelihood Detailed vocabularies are necessary to communicate sophisticated information relevant to the adaptive strategy

The environment and vocabulary English Developed in wet coastal plains Very poor in words describing mountainous terrain Abounds with words describing flowing streams Rural American South—river, creek, branch, fork, prong, run, bayou, and slough

Understanding Dialects Bill Cosby understanding Southern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1NsC98xVN0&feature=player_embedde d Mental Floss – Regional Slang http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w6uQIXC1aI