Language

Key Issue 1: Where Are English-Language Speakers Distributed? English is spoken fluently by a total of one half billion people This is more than any other language except Mandarin It is very widely distributed throughout the world, and is the official language in 50 countries

Why is English so widely distributed? The people of England first migrated with their language when they established colonies The United States is also responsible for diffusing English to many different places (ex - Philippines

Where did English first originate? The British Isles is the official origin of the English language Tribes from the mainland of Europe invaded the British by pushing the Celts into the remote northern and western parts of Britain

These tribes included the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons Anglo-Saxons originated in England, and the name “England” comes from the Angles land Modern English evolved primarily from the language spoken by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons

How is English related to other languages? Because England was conquered by the Normans, it is different from German Many straightforward words come from Germanic roots Fancy and more elegant words are often French

Dialect Dialect is a regional variation of a language, distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation Because of the large number of speakers and its wide distribution around the world, English has a large number of dialects

How do the dialects differ? The United States and England have completely different dialects even though they share the same language, English Isolation is a key reason for the differences in vocabulary and spelling in these two countries Within the United States, dialects can be distinguished between the eastern and northern US

Key Issue 2: Why is English Related to Other Languages? English is part of the Indo-European Language Family, and more specifically the Germanic branch This is because it was spoken by the Germanic tribes that invade England 1500 years ago This is then divided into 8 branches 4 main branches: Indo-Iranian, Romance, Germanic, and Balto-Slavic 4 less common branches: Albanian, Armenian, Greek, and Celtic

Indo-Iranian Branch Divided into 2 groups - Eastern Group (Indic) and Western Group (Iranian) Iranian Group: Major Iranian group languages include Persian, Pashto, and Kurdish Indic Group: The widely used language in India is in the Indic group 1/3 of Indians use Hindi The principal language of Pakistan is Urdu In 1947 Hindu became the official language for India

Balto-Slavic Branch Divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups The most widely used Slavic languages are primarily Eastern, Ex: Russia Polish - most commonly spoken Western Slavic language; Czech and Slovak also popular

Romance Language Branch Evolved from the Latin language 4 most widely used Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian Spanish and French are 2 of the 6 total official languages of the United Nations The dialect of the Ile-de France region became the standard form of French Spanish is the official language in 18 Latin American states

Romance Language Branch

Key Issue 3 8 main language branches: Indo European (lime green): spoken by 48% of the world, Ex: English Sino Tibetan (red): spoken by 26% of the world, Ex: Chinese Afro Asiatic (yellow): spoken by 6% of the world, Ex: Arabic Austronesian (pink): spoken by 5% of the world, Ex: Southeast Asia Dravidian (light green): spoken by 4% of the world, Ex: India Altaic (dark green): spoken by 3% of the world, Ex: mostly in Asia Niger-Congo (orange): spoken by 3% of the world Japanese: spoken by 2% of the world

Extinct Languages An extinct language is a language once spoken and also used fairly recently, but not used anymore Examples: Celtic, Hebrew Because Judaism is still in practice and is a religion, Hebrew is technically not dead but still has come to not be a common language

Multilingual States: A multilingual state is a state that uses multiple languages Example: Belgium (French, Dutch, and German) Isolate Languages: A language unrelated to any other language, and therefore not attached to any language family Examples: The Bosque in the Bosque region of France near the Spain border

Other Terms to Know Language Family: a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history. (Indo-European largest) Language Branch: a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not extensive or as old as with language families. Language Group: a collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary. Lingua Franca: an international language of communication, Ex: English Pidgin language: learning a simplified lingua franca Ebonics: An African American dialect of English Franglais – French and English Spanglish – Spanish and English Denglish – German and English

Photo Sources http://www.thw.coventry.sch.uk/MFL/MFL.htm http://www.schooljotter.com/imagefolders/lansbury/British_Isles.jpg http://cd7.e2bn.net/e2bn/leas/c99/schools/cd7/website/images/anglo-saxon-Map.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English http://robertspage.com/diausa.gif http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/blogs/thinking/cognition/ http://ninitalk.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/348/ http://dnghu.org/indoeuropean/indoeuropean_archivos/image029.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Romance_languages_and_Romanian.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Human_Language_Families_Map_%28Wikipedia_Colors_.PNG http://s2.ned.univie.ac.at/Publicaties/taalgeschiedenis/en/belgie.gif