Chapter 6 Language Language is a set of symbols shared by a community to communicate meaning and experience. Two theories exist on how language is learned: *belief that we are biologically programmed for language *Others argue that we develop language skills from clues in the environment.

Chapter 6:Language To determine if two languages are derived from the same mother tongue, we look for: Similar sounding words with similar meaning (cat, chat (French), Katze (German), Katte (Swedish) Syntax: how words are arranged to convey meaning E.g., English: Subject-Verb-Object (“Cats eat mice”). Japanese & Korean: SOV (“Cats mice eat”).

Chapter 6: Development of Language Indo- European AltaicNostraticProto-WorldPicto-graphic Writing Phonetic writing E.g. Germanic (e.g., Dutch, English, German) Asian Languages (e.g., Mongolic, Japanese, Korean) Indo- European, Altaic are derived from Nostratic. African’s language may be the first human language. 1 st writing: cuneiform: wedge-shape symbols cut into soft clay Phonetic: when symbols represent syllables. Eg. “bee” & “leaf” vs. belief Romance Languages (e.g., French, Spanish) Share SOV syntax order Africa’s Khoisan Language !Kung San is originated in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2 types of writing: Thought writing- pictographic& Sound writing (phonetic) Writing originated about 3200BC. Ideograms: symbols expanded in meaning. 1500BC: Alphabet phonetic writing started.

Chapter 6 Language Chinese language: Chinese script does not depend on the spoken word. It can be read without any knowledge of the spoken language. Even people who speak with different dialects can still recognize the same Chinese characters. Japanese is written in: kanji (Chinese characters) Hiragana (used to write words of Japanese) Katakana (used to write loan words of Western origin) Romaji (Roman letters)

Chapter 6 Language Arabic: Every Muslim must become conversant with written Arabic. Islam and Koran played a large part in the development of Arabic calligraphy. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: Reality for a culture is discoverable in its language. Explains the relationship between language and culture.

Chapter 6 Culture & Language Linguistic Determinism: Language structure CONTROLS thought & cultural norms. We live in the world that our language permits us to know. The world we know is PREDETERMINED by the language of our culture. Linguistic Relativity: Linguistic characteristics and cultural norms influence each other. Culture is controlled by and controls language. The difference between languages is not what can be said but what is relatively easy to say.

Pidgins, Creoles, Esperanto PidginsCreoloesEsperanto A mixture of two or more language to form a new language. Were used for trading. A new language developed from prolonged contact. Are concentrated in areas where slave labor was used (e.g., Caribbean. A type of universal language developed in 19 century by Lazarus Zamenhof. Became widespread in the 19 th C. colonial European plantations era. Most well-known creoles language: French-based Haitian. English has become the universal language.