Chapter 5 Key Issue 1 Where are the World’s Languages Distributed?

Big Question How many languages are there in the world and how are they classified? How are the world’s languages organized and how many language families are there? What are the largest two? Be able to identify major language families on a map and on a language tree.

Institutional Languages Dying Languages Official Language Key Terms Languages Trouble Languages Institutional Languages Dying Languages Official Language Languages Families Literary Tradition Languages Branches Developing Languages Languages Groups Vigorous Languages

Introducing Languages Language is a system of communication through speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understands to have the same meaning The distribution of language is a direct result of migration and the interaction (ex. Madagascar P. 146) or isolation of language speakers

Introducing Languages Groups that speak a similar language but live isolated from each other will begin to speak languages that are so different they become a different version of the original (British English/American English) or a new language completely (English out of Old Norse)

Classifying Languages The number of languages spoken worldwide now exceeds 7,100 This large number best exemplifies human’s cultural diversity Of the 7,100 languages spoken, 94% of them are spoken by 1 million people or less, making it hard to identify how some are distributed

Classifying Languages Those 7,100 languages can be divided into 5 categories: institutional, developing, vigorous, trouble, and dying Some languages are spoken by so few people that the language is considered in troubled or dying

Classifying Languages Institutional languages (8%) are used in education, work, law, mass media, and governments. Governments sometimes declare them that country’s official language Institutional languages must have literary tradition meaning it is written as well as spoken, includes a method of writing (such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Latin, etc.) and has rules of grammar

Classifying Languages Developing languages (23%) are spoken in daily use and by people of all ages and backgrounds. These also have literary traditions but the number of speakers may be too few to have much literature Thousands of spoken languages lack a literary tradition

Classifying Languages Vigorous languages (35%) are spoken in daily use and have no literary traditions Troubled (22%) and Dying (13%) are as the names imply and at various stages. Some are being saved but many will vanish

Language Families The world’s 7,100 languages can be divided into: Language Families are a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history (ex. Two largest being Indo-Europeans and Sino-Tibetan) Language Branches are a collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago. Not as old as families are but can be traced back to a single family. (ex. Germanic, Romance, East Slavic) Language Groups are collections within a branch that share a common origin in the recent past and are very similar in grammar and vocabulary

Language Families All of this can be shown in the language family tree as seen on pages 148-149 or in your handout Some believe that all languages can be traced back to a single language family out of Africa There are 142 language families but 14 of them are used by 99% of the world’s people

Big Question & Key Terms How many languages are there in the world and how are they classified? How are the world’s languages organized and how many language families are there? What are the largest two? Be able to identify major language families on a map and on a language tree. Languages Institutional Languages Official Language Literary Tradition Developing Languages Vigorous Languages Trouble Languages Dying Languages Languages Families Languages Branches Languages Groups

Chapter 5 Key Issue 2 Where Did English and Related Languages Originate and Diffuse?

Big Question Discuss the origins of the English language, its diffusion throughout the world, and its importance in today’s world.

Nomadic Warrior Theory Vulgar Latin Sedentary Farmer Theory Key Terms Germanic Branch Proto-Indo-European Romance Branch Nomadic Warrior Theory Vulgar Latin Sedentary Farmer Theory Indo-Iranian Pidgin Language Balto-Slavic Logograms

Distribution of Indo-European Branches ½ of world’s population speaks an Indo-European language The Indo-European language family is divided into 8 branches, 4 common and 4 much less so

Distribution of Indo-European Branches 4 most common branches of Indo-European family are: Germanic – Divided into two groups West Germanic includes English, Frisian, German, and Dutch North Germanic (Spoken in Scandinavia) includes Danish, Faeroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish…all derive from Old Norse and split around 1,000 AD

Distribution of Indo-European Branches Romance – Developed from the Latin language of the Romans. As the Roman Empire expanded, the Latin language diffused to those living in the new provinces. These people were known to speak variations of Latin known as Vulgar Latin, which eventually transformed into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian after the fall of the Roman Empire. These Romance languages would then diffuse to the Americas in the 16th century when the Spanish and Portuguese conquered.

Distribution of Indo-European Branches Indo-Iranian – Branch of Indo-European family with the most speakers and also divided into two groups Iranian (Western) and Indic (Eastern) Major Iranian group languages are Persian/Farsi, Pashto, Kurdish and are written in the Arabic alphabet Major Indic group language is Hindi/Urdu…same language written in two different alphabets

Distribution of Indo-European Branches Balto-Slavic – Predominate in Eastern Europe after the Slavic people migrated from Asia to Eastern Europe in the 7th Century A.D. Can be divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups as well as a Baltic group Most common Slavic language is Russian (East Slavic group) which was forced onto other Slavs when the Soviet Union dominated during the 20th century West Slavic group languages include Polish, Czech, and Slovak South Slavic group languages includes one language that is spoken by Bosnians, Croatians, and Serbians but is called three different languages although it is written using different alphabets (Cyrillic and Latin)

Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian are all part of the same family because they can all be traced to a single ancestor This ancestor cannot be proven but is known as Proto-Indo-European

Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European Some clues do persist about this language that pre-dates recorded history and connect them all The clues lie in similar words about nature such as animals and trees…words that are not shared would have been added later after the proto language split

Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European The origin and diffusion of Proto-Indo-European and led to two major theories Nomadic Warrior Theory says the Kurgen (4,300 B.C.) people were the first to speak the language. Migrating out of Asia in search of grasslands for their animals, the Kurgens spread in all directions, conquering and bringing their language with them

Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European Sedentary Farmer Theory suggests the original speakers lived in the eastern part of modern-day Turkey around 6,700 B.C. and spread out not by military conquest but by agricultural expansion After this initial expansion, the language spread all over Europe and South Asia but due to isolation of these people, transformed into the different families, branches, groups, and languages we have today

Origin and Diffusion of English The English language came out of the invading Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from Denmark and Germany during the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries A.D. These three groups spoke a similar language that had its roots in early German The language morphed into what is now known as Old English

Origin and Diffusion of English In 1066, England was conquered by French-speaking Normans For the next 200 years, French was the official language of England In 1362 English became the official language again but many French words were adopted into what is now called Middle English

Origin and Diffusion of English Modern English would develop around 1600 after the influence of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible Modern English then diffused around the world as the British Empire expanded and later as the United States extended their realm of influence

Global Importance of English In the modern “global” world, English has become the most important language of international communication The dominance of English has helped diffuse popular culture and science and helped grow international trade but it also may be destroying native languages English has become known as a lingua franca or a language adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different

Global Importance of English Children around the world learn English to help them participate in the global economy and culture Some learn a simplified form of a language known as a pidgin language in order to communicate with speakers of another language

Global Importance of English Other lingua franca are Swahili in East Africa, Hindi in South Asia, Indonesian in Southeast Asia, and Russian in the former Soviet Union The internet has also helped to strengthen the dominance of English with over half of all websites being in English…but it is declining

Global Importance of English Chinese is quickly becoming an important lingua franca as its logograms (symbols that represent words or parts of words) take up much less space in social media and programing

Official Languages An official language is used by governments to conduct business and enact legislation Some governments may use more than one in order to help its citizens participate in government

Official Languages Europe has a large number of official languages with 24 recognized in the European Union English is the official language of 58 countries (the most) – 2 billion people English is also the dominant language in many places where it is not an official language (ex. Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States)

Big Question & Key Terms Discuss the origins of the English language, its diffusion throughout the world, and its importance in today’s world. Germanic Branch Romance Branch Vulgar Latin Indo-Iranian Balto-Slavic Proto-Indo-European Nomadic Warrior Theory Sedentary Farmer Theory Pidgin Language Logograms